(S.E.D./winged C)EL34's-Anyone know if they're any good? (Peter maybe?)

Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert

Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert

Active member
Hey guys,

I wanted to know everyone's opinion on these as I've always heard good things about them. My Chinese El34B's just blew on me and took out a screen grid resistor, so Uwe's is working on it now, actually they just finished with it, should be shipping it back monday. Besides wanting to know how they sound I've heard they are MUCH more reliable, EVERY set of Ruby el34's I've had, has went microphonic early, or has red plated on me, and its not because I'm not biasing them right, actually Peter biased my last ones and I know they were done right, just I've either had a bum rap with them ...or they're poop reliablity wise, don't get me wrong they sound pretty darn good, I just cant get a set to last longer than two weeks before crapping out. I actually had Uwe's put a set of SED's in so more than anything I'm just wanting opinions on them and to see if anyone else has had as many problems with their Ruby's, I'm guessing no though since I really don't hear about it that much, I want to give them another shot unless the SED's blow them out of the water . Aren't they suppose to be introducing a MKIII (new version) of the EL34B sometime soon? I wouldn't mind trying it again when that comes out, or is that the current one? I just hope these SED's rock, please tell me they do guys. :yes:

-Nick
 
Hi Nick !

The SEDs are nice sounding tubes with more midrange
than the Chinese, but same issue with reliability.

I stress the new tubes with full volume by using
a triangle signal with 2 Volts into the power amp
till they start to glow.
Then I knock on the glass to get the ones with screen
shorts.
What else should I do ?

Sorry
 
I guess I just have bad luck :yes: . I'm glad to hear the SED's are nice sounding tubes though and to hear they have more midrange, because I like a very heavy dose of midrange. Sucks they're the same reliability wise...can't do anything about that though.

Thanks much Peter,

-Nick

P.S. Peter, there's one thing you can do... make tubes :gethim:, haha. Thanks amp god. :p
 
Never had problems with Svetlana/SED tubes. I currently have one of their preamp tubes as well as their 6L6 tubes in my Einstein. Earlier I owned a Marshall DSL50 that came with the EL34s.
 
Must have been bad pair of tubes (it happens)!

I replaced the original EH EL34 with Ruby's EL34 and preferred the Ruby's way more. It's a more balanced EL34. EH were spiky. I had a power amp with those Svets that you just mentioned they're good tubes too!
 
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Peter Diezel":7f438 said:
The SEDs are nice sounding tubes with more midrange
than the Chinese, but same issue with reliability.
Click to expand...
Hi Peter! Eini just eat the third quad of chinese EL34 - the last set lasted two months (well, I hope it's just the tubes... haven't ordered a new quad yet to check). What would you recommend for more reliabilty?
 
Hi Peter! Eini just eat the third quad of chinese EL34 - the last set lasted two months (well, I hope it's just the tubes... haven't ordered a new quad yet to check). What would you recommend for more reliabilty?
Click to expand...

I really think its the tubes, They do sound great, really good actually, but I tried a set in my Mesa when I had it before the Diez and they did the same thing, red-plated and blew the screen grid, and Mesa's are biased cold, although Mesa are notorious for blowing screen grid resistors as are all fender style amps, just the nature of them, so I never thought another thing of it till they started going bad in the Herbert too, not as bad as the last time though, it totally shattered the fuse. The Diezel did sound way better before the tubes gave out though, hahaha. The Chinese tubes are sounding better and better all the time but their EL34's are still lacking a solid structure I think, but like I said lots of people use them without fail, thank God the preamp tubes rule and are reliable.
I mean Peter goes through all that trouble to get us good ones and some of them still fail early on, just makes me leary of using them, at least in a live setting. Never know what your getting with tubes though ya know, hell I've seen NOS tubes fail first fire up, and fail bad...like get so hot the glass totally goes all chrome mirror looking.

-Nick
 
Also, it may have just been a bad batch of tubes that I got stuck with the times I've tried them, the first two sets were close enough to be from the same batch and the last two sets I had in my herbert were close enough to be in the same batch, that also depends on how many tubes they pump out in a batch though I guess.
 
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Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert":a64bf said:
I really think its the tubes,
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I think, too. They last about 8-10 month in my amps normally. That's ok but not really good. I don't play *that* much. I put a new quad in my Marshall in April, those were shot after 8 months, too.

They sound like a EL34 with a 6L6ish touch to me if that makes any sense. Maybe I'll get two more traditional EL34 and mix them with 6L6.
 
I'm still using both original sets in Einstein (early 2006) and Herbert (mid 2005). Those 10 are chinese . . .
 
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