Tube rollers - what tubes for my RH84?

[Brisso57]

I'm about to commence building my first tube amp, an RH84.

The tube complement is

1 off 5U4 rectifier
1 off ECC81
2 off EL84

I'm not interested in hearing about unobtainium, but what have RH84 builders out there found to be sweet tubes, or sweet combo's?

* Yes, I know sound quality depends on the iron and also on the passives, but I want to limit this discussion to experience of tubes in this amp.

What should I buy?

cheers

Doug

 

[Klimon]

Do try the philips/mullard manufactured el84's. These can be branded Valvo/dario/miniwatt... but sound equally fantastic.

Simon

 

[Brisso57]

Thanks Simon.
Anyone else with a recommendation?

Doug

 

[NICKEL]

I've tried a few, the cheap Russian NOS are pretty good. Certainly not night and day compared to Teles or Amprex. To be honest - I've lost interest in tube rolling - its cost heaps, with no corresponding payback compared to say drivers and amps.

 

[disco]

Use quality capacitors for C1 (10uF-350V), it pays off.
For the power supply use a beafy transformer (250mA HT), this is my setup.

Must admit that this amp sounds much bigger than the 5+5W it puts out

 

[kevinkr]

The Russian 6P14P-EV or ER is a good sounding 6BQ5 equivalent and quite rugged - readily available on eBay for little money. It is one of the nicer sounding tubes I have tried in some hi-fi SE amps. Compared them to Telefunken 6BQ5 and GE 7189A. IMO it was better sounding than the GE, and I thought was very comparable to the Teles.

Give 'em a shot..

 

[disco]

The ECC81 I liked best was NOS Mullard. Also old production Philips and Brimar are excellent. When buying used tubes be sure they measure up to spec because there's a lot of worn out junk for sale. Don't pay more than 15 - 20 euro for a NOS ECC81.

 

[Brisso57]

Thanks Guys. Good stuff!

Disco, can you translate "lichtnet" for me pls?

Doug

 

[disco]

Don't you have a lichtnet downunder?
Man, you're missing something
Try mains instead

 

[kevinkr]

The Russian 6P14P-EV or ER is a good sounding 6BQ5 equivalent and quite rugged - readily available on eBay for little money. It is one of the nicer sounding tubes I have tried in some hi-fi SE amps. Compared them to Telefunken 6BQ5 and GE 7189A. IMO it was better sounding than the GE, and I thought was very comparable to the Teles.

Give 'em a shot..

I should have noted while not exactly identical to the RH84 the amplifier in question was based on the RH84 and is generally similar. (Same principal of operation, just a few values tweaked - the amp was not one of mine.)