What are the best EL-84 & preamp tubes?

[Len Amaral]

To my surprise, my Mesa Boogie Transatlantic 30 has tubes made in China. I am sure there are better choices. Any suggestions are appreciated. Looking for as much head room as possible.

Lenny

[Tim Marcus]

Believe it or not the best current production tubes are made in China now!

Check out Ruby or TAD. I have had much better luck with the Chinese tubes than with any others. New Old Stock is still best, but if you want to save some cash you know what to do

[John Limbach]

Len:

Based on Tim's recommendation, I put all Ruby's in my Traynor YBA-1 project. The EL-34's in the output are factory matched. Sounds great. I ran it for a good while with the original tubes and it sounded OK, too.

But I figure if it's good enough for the "Milkman", it's good for me too!

Thanks for the tip, Tim.

[Len Amaral]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I am going to search a bit for some other type tubes and see what's out there.

Lenny

[John Gould]

I've been told by some amp builders that JJ's are the best 12AX7's out there. I know it made a difference in one of my amps.

[Stephen Cowell]

NOS Mullard and Telefunken and RCA are the best 12AX7's out there. Expect to pay for what you get. Don't bother buying NOS EL84's.

[Tim Marcus]

JJs were great up until recently. The quality has really gone downhill as of late.

[Timothy Foster]

Don't bother buying NOS EL84's.

I do agree as you tend to go through them rather quickly compared to 12ax7's... but I will say, I snagged up a bunch of NOS Telam and Polam EL-84's on the cheap before they caught on, and I do prefer them to the usual suspects. A little less "gainy" and edgy in my 18-watt Marshall clone, which suits me...

Nowadays I save them for recording, and had been using the JJ's for gigging... though I haven't been gigging much lately, and haven't picked up a set for a while.

[Len Amaral]

Going to try a set of JJ tubes and see what happens....