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Can anyone give me some info on a tube?

Wigwam Jones

Wigwam Jones

Caesar non supra grammati
The tube is a Motorola EL84/6BQ5 "Golden M" marked Premium Rated, Made in Holland, and coded X3 and X98 underneath the X3. I presume that is some sort of date code? The tube has a "D" shapped getter, I believe it is called.

This is one of four identical tubes which came in an amp I just got. It is broken at the base and must be replaced, but the others work fine.

Two of them are used P-P and the other two are SE, one per channel.

My thought was to replace two of the tubes with something else, to still have a matched set. I could replace either both the PP tubes or both the SE tubes, I suppose.

Any thoughts on when and where this tube was made and what might make a good replacement for it? Was it a high-quality tube or just run of the mill?

Thanks!
 
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That's a Philips tube, often labeled as "Amperex" for US sale (Amperex was a US tube company bought by Philips). It's anything but "run of the mill" - not that you'll ever find a bad EL84.
 
skriefal said:
The "X3" must be incorrect. That would indicate a 5672 subminiature tube. Could that line actually read "rX3"? That'd make sense, as "rX" is one of the codes used for an EL84.

"X98" is the factory and date code. 'X' is the Sittard factory in Holland. "98" is the date code, which is probably October 1959. More info here:
http://frank.pocnet.net/other/Philips/PhilipsCodeListAB.pdf
Click to expand...

Could it be TX3? It looks like there was a T which printed funny, perhaps.
 
Highly regarded in my book, right up there with Mullards and Telefunkens. I have some with the Motorola "brand" like yours. It's rX3.
 
I have a matched quad of those running in one of my amps. Definitely above run of the mill.

A checked shows them in my Dynaco Stereo 35.
 
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