Are there modern tubes that sound as good as best NOS?

[slashsound]

BK butler uses YUGO tubes ( EI ) on his tube driver for gilmour .... this is a modern tube... what do you guys think of it ? From what I understand it is made to be exactly like a mullard .... using the same tooling , materials and methods.

[demonufo]

Again, I'm intrigued to know where you get this information from. I can only assume that you are talking of the EI longplates from the early/mid 90's onwards. They don't make them anymore, and haven't for a while.
Being a longplate they are more prone to microphonics, but being a cheaper manufactured tube (quality control) they're even more prone. So you need to pick your tube seller carefully, and even then, some go quite quickly. This said, I have three sat in a drawer that are pretty reliable. And sound quite good too.


But I wouldn't say they were like a mullard. Philips may have owned EI, but that does not make them similar.
Again, the tooling will not have been the same, neither will the materials. The message doesn't seem to be getting through to you that the quality of raw materials has gone drastically downhill since the decline of British and American steel plants from their heyday before the 70's, the purity of the metal is just not what it was. And again, some of the chemicals used in the process CANNOT be used. Not even in Yugoslavia.

Really, I don't know why you bother wasting your time looking for something similar. Don't you think that hasn't already been done? Not only that, but Mullard is NOT the "be all and end all". There are many 12AX7's that posess different and even better qualities in some aspects from back in the day, Sylvania, Amperex, early GE's, Telefunkens etc.

Some of Mullards tubes are indeed a load of old crap compared to others too. Whilst their EL84 might be great in hi-fi amps, it's far from great sounding in guitar amps when compared to the likes of Tesla, Telam, Polam, Tungsram, Sylvania etc. Even some early no-name Russian tubes I have sound better in my 18watter than Mullards do.

[Tone Slinger]

This is what I have found too, which is , old tubes are harder to come by and a whole lot of the tubes (old ones) have been sorted SO many times by buy'ers that most of what is left (not all ) is not reference in tone to what they should be. Obviuosly pre amp tubes are more stable in this 'sound quality' ratio, as compared to power tubes.

I will still keep searching for old tubes (I still run into them at flea markets down here in the southern USA (North and South Carolina). Problem is finding what I want.

I will get another 50 watter because matched pairs are WAY easier to come by than quads.

[johniss0001]

speaking of tubes i have vanished for a while and been doing some research ok here are several scenarios and different amps. I have a sound city 120 running 6 el34bs valveart and god knows what preamp valves i guess potluck we should call these, 78 superbass running el34b shuguang biased at 39mV highest end of the scale cause i changed the bias resistor with mullard preamps god knows how hard of a life they has as they came from a sound city pa 100mk3, 69 superlead with shuguang el34b biaset at 24mV cause i haven't changed the bias resistor from a 47k it's a 90% original amp so i am not tampering with it, 1968 laney supergroup with jj e34ls god knows what they are biased at and mullard preamps i had about and finally my beloved sound city mk4 pa 50 mullard el34s biased at 48mV which is quite high but passable and yeich sovtek preamps 70 marshall super pa with pot luck preamps i can't remember but it's a fantastic mix.
Ok I have noticed something with the shuguangs in stock marshall circuits both my 69 superlead and 78 superbass have around 475vdc at the plates now i lowered the bias resistor on my 78 to 33k instead of 47k which is quite a big move realistically i should fit a 50k bias pot now before i did this the hottest bias i could get was 28mV and i am at that with the 69 superlead as that has the 47k resistor in the bias still but i refuse to change that as that resistor has the red dye on it. I love the shuguangs they are one of my favourite tubes they have that spark i look for and tones i hear in my head although they bias lower with stock circuits and I have them biased hot in my 78 sb and i dig that amp it sounds fantastic it's such an addictive amp same with the 69 although the valves are running cooler, when i got the 69 it has svet el34s biased to 35mV and that amp just pissed me off shuguangs in and i love it. Now for the time being i put those svet el34s into my super pa that amp is biased at 33mV with a B+ of 516!!! doesn't sound too bad with that combination but i am pretty sure the shugs would sound better. JJ e34ls in the laney sound alright i haven't had that amp put on my bias probe and scopes yet but that amp was serviced by bob dixon so i am leaving it just now again i want shuguangs in that amp to see how they balance out. NOW HERE'S WHERE THINGS GET INTERESTING soz for caps lock ok here goes i have sound city mk4 pa with a bias of -42VDC and a 10k resistor going to pin 5 el34 bases using ohms law i should get around 42mA well with the mullards i get around 48mA which is a bit high but still in range and if those resistors have a 20% tollerance then that's about right now if i put the jjs in i get 75mV per tube bear in mind i have 2 bias pots for that amp 1 for each tube. 75mV is rediculous!!!! I think there is a problem somewhere with these modern tubes as i think i have to change the bias pots in my amps for 50ks to see if i can get the range. I am doing some research with a well known guy in the pro audio field with tubes can't say much but we are looking into el34s. New tubes have a piss poor vacuum no tube has a vacuum like a mullard. I am bias haha pardon the pun but i love the shuguangs in every amp i've put them into i have cranked hell out of those amps and they love it i have had more problems with jjs and sovteks rattling as they are cranked that's my oppinion and i am sticking to it. At the moment i am rocking with the shuguang/valveart kt66, shuguang el34b and tung sol reissue preamps. For the record shuguangs are better matched than sovtek a matched quad of shuguang has say a tollerance of 1mV where as sovteks had a tollerance of 30mV!!!

[brujo]

IMHO there are a lot of lousy NOS 12AX7's around, so NOS isn't tone heaven unless you have really good old glass.
Obviously you can't beat an old Mullard, Telefunken or RCA 12AX7 with new production tubes, but I think Mullard Reissue ECC83 and Tung-Sol Gold Pin (not the standard ones) sound really good and stand well over cheap NOS glass. I have a really big stash of NOS tubes that I'll keep forever for my personal use, but if I have to use or recommend modern production 12AX7's, these would be my choices.
I like JJ KT77's and Mullard Reissue EL34's too, and I think they're the best modern EL34 style bottles (I like Winged C's too, but I think KT77s and mullards sound a bit better) but they really cannot beat old glass, I hope they get better products in the future, but actually they can't survive a comparison to NOS EL34s.

Are there good modern KT66s? I tried Valve Arts and though they're good, they are miles behind any old KT66, any recommendations?