• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Help needed identifying a tube/valve

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gerhard

gerhard

Member
Joined 2005
hoffmann-hochfrequenz.de
The E88CC is the longlife version of the Ecc88. That's the same as E186F <---> EF186. The difference is a little bit of gold on the pins and some relaxed/tightened specs to justify the price difference. Maybe a different cathode material. It was used in radio sets for the police, red cross and other state-funded organizations.

It's incarnation as PCC88 was used in TV UHF tuners. P*** tubes use 300 mA heating and the heaters of all tubes were all in series so they did not need a transformer and could be directly heated
from the AC line.

Since the tubes seem to be used (from the photo) it is unclear how much of their extended life has been spent already. I would personally prefer a new ECC88. But then, how do you tell a new tube / NOS / new from backyard fab?

regards, Gerhard
 
popilin

popilin

R.I.P.
Joined 2010
gerhard said:
The E88CC is the longlife version of the Ecc88. That's the same as E186F <---> EF186. The difference is a little bit of gold on the pins and some relaxed/tightened specs to justify the price difference. Maybe a different cathode material. It was used in radio sets for the police, red cross and other state-funded organizations.
Click to expand...

Hallo Gerhard. I need the E88CC mainly due to Vamax and Vkf, my vice of making SRPP stages is becoming very expensive. :D

gerhard said:
Since the tubes seem to be used (from the photo) it is unclear how much of their extended life has been spent already. I would personally prefer a new ECC88. But then, how do you tell a new tube / NOS / new from backyard fab?

regards, Gerhard
Click to expand...

I do not think the valves are used, look at the side, the import stamp is not burnt.

As I said before, I am considering new cheaper valves, as E88CC/6922 from Electro Harmonix. Any thoughts?

Danke schön!
 
popilin

popilin

R.I.P.
Joined 2010
FullRangeMan said:
Do you mean say the schematic is done? or the amp already builted?
Click to expand...

The schematic is already done, as a bunch of simulations, and the PCBs are almost designed.

Lingwendil said:
6N23P is an affordable and nice quality "exact" equivalent to the 6DJ8/6922/ECC88.

The 6N1P will work, but is a much different tube in nearly everything but mu.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, 6N23P is equivalent to E88CC/6922, capacitances are slightly higher (tolerances too), but I must import them, almost as expensive as original Philips.

Here, the most similar which can be obtained is the 6N1P, but as I said before, its transconductance is too low for the task.

Thanks for your reply.
 
popilin

popilin

R.I.P.
Joined 2010
Something smells bad

I saw someone on the web asking to dealer for mark code, the answer was 7LE ⊿ 9C2, the same as here

Philips Miniwatt SQ E88CC / 6922 Gold Pin, Holland
| TubeDepot.com

A new search

https://frank.pocnet.net/other/Philips/PhilipsCodeListAB.pdf

7L = E88CC/6922

What about the E?

⊿ = Philips, Heerlen

9 = Year 1959 or 1969

C = March

2 = Second week

With your forgiveness, but for U$S110.- it seems to me suspicious, same codes, different labels, and "unearthed" at about the same time in two different countries.

Allen Wright dixit

Gents,
Be really careful when buying expensive NOS tubes. The quality tube factories (TFK, Valvo, Siemens, Philips etc) all closed their production lines in the late 60's early 70's and sold their worn out production machinery to eastern european companies - and then bought back the new operation's tubes and branded them with their premium brand.
Unfortunately, the quality of the eastern tubes were genrally shockingly bad, with no production practice, worn out tooling and substandard raw materials they couldn't be any other way - yet they will carry genuine TFK or Siemens logos...

Even worse are the tubes that were made by other eastern companies and then had their original logos removed and replaced with a TFK or other premium branding. Some are flat out junk!

Finding genuine NOS stock from West European manufactures is still possible, but very expensive, and it's very hard to tell the real ones from the rebranded fakes.

For our production tube products, we use currently manufactured tubes from Electroharmonix - finding them to be 1/ very good sounding, 2/ very consistant in quality and 3/ have long life. They are all built in Russian factories with decades of experience, and many were/are actually producers of military quality tubes as MIGs still use tube electronics - no EMP problems!

Otherwise, caviet emptor!

Regards, Allen
Click to expand...

Any thoughts?
 
RajkoM

RajkoM

Member
Joined 2009
Just a notice.

I remember from A.Wright era, fans of E88CC tubes preferred Siemens E88CC (with "A0" code - stamped inside on vertical holder) and Tungsram E88CC more than Phillips.

Look for old discussions on some forums.

... and

Some manufacturers of professional audio equipments (such as "Nagra Kudelski") incorporate Elektro Harmonix tubes.
Nagra is world's miracle of mechanics and electronics.
 
popilin

popilin

R.I.P.
Joined 2010
RajkoM said:
Just a notice.

I remember from A.Wright era, fans of E88CC tubes preferred Siemens E88CC (with "A0" code - stamped inside on vertical holder) and Tungsram E88CC more than Phillips.

Look for old discussions on some forums.
Click to expand...

Since ancient times, I have always been a fan of Siemens.

I had a rich aunt in Germany who was a shareholder in Siemens, but before she died disinherited us... :p:D

RajkoM said:
... and

Some manufacturers of professional audio equipments (such as "Nagra Kudelski") incorporate Elektro Harmonix tubes.
Nagra is world's miracle of mechanics and electronics.
Click to expand...

You are right, I think that Electro-Harmonix is the way to go.

Thank you very much Rajko!
 
TonyTecson

TonyTecson

Member
Joined 2003
yes, those U$1 dollar tubes i bought hundreds of now sells for $5 after a few years..
the 6BC4 triodes that used to sell $1 is now at $4.....
the 6AN4 triode that was praised here were gobbled up in just a week after being discussed here...
the russian 6n23 that we used to by for less than $10 is now selling for more than $25...

edit: we have tried the 7dj8 in a 6n23 line amp i made and the sound was equal to the 6n23, but better than the 6dj8...
 
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