• 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.

Tung Sol ECC803S reissue - thumbs down

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Tung Sol ECC803S reissue - thumbs down - and TELEFUNKEN discusion

tried some of these today.....could not believe how noisy they were...by far the nosiest tube I ever heard. If you are thinking about this tube...google around like I did not before buying....it turns out they have a reputation for having background noise.

edit: I added TELEFUNKEN discussion to the thread title, lots of interesting info about TELEFUNKEN tubes.
 
Last edited:
Administrator
Joined 2004
Paid Member
tried some of these today.....could not believe how noisy they were...by far the nosiest tube I ever heard. If you are thinking about this tube...google around like I did not before buying....it turns out they have a reputation for having background noise.

That's particularly bad because the ECC803 family is supposed to be extremely quiet.
 
Fifty years ago ECC803 meant an ECC83, only better. Nowadays it means nothing, just marketing.

Right. The designation ECC803S once was used by TELEFUNKEN for a special quality, rugged, low noise, high reliability, long life version of the ECC83/12AX7 tube, featuring frame grid construction. All we can buy from current production is none of it.

Nearest comes the J/J ECC83S which at least is a frame grid tube.

Best regards!
 
Fifty years ago ECC803 meant an ECC83, only better. Nowadays it means nothing, just marketing.

Absolutely right!

Telefunken ECC803s is not just a normal ECC83 with cosmetic difference like golden pins.

It has completely different plate structure comparing to normal Telefunken ECC83 12AX7, they are like Telefunken 6922 E88CC plates and it has dual stage getters. Early type Telefunken ECC803s has one support rod to ring getter and later types have two support rods.
 
Telefunken ECC803s is not just a normal ECC83 with cosmetic difference like golden pins.

It has completely different plate structure comparing to normal Telefunken ECC83 12AX7, they are like Telefunken 6922 E88CC plates and it has dual stage getters. Early type Telefunken ECC803s has one support rod to ring getter and later types have two support rods.


This thread reminded me that I have one of these in my stash....but sadly, I'm pretty certain that it's fake........
 

Attachments

  • tele 803S (3).jpg
    tele 803S (3).jpg
    178.5 KB · Views: 464
  • tele 803S (4).jpg
    tele 803S (4).jpg
    182.6 KB · Views: 462
hope I'm not thread-jacking.......

Do you think it is really the Tesla 'official copy'? The bulb shape looks wrong for it to be a modern JJ; they have a more rounded top.


I have no idea what it is, or what a "Tesla official copy" is...please enlighten me.....

There is no Tele diamond on the bottom, and the printing does not crumble off like my other Telefunkens......The getter looks much like some Russian tubes in my stash.

I can post a few more images if that would help with ID
 
Tesla made valves based on the Telefunken ECC803s and ECC83 designs. I believe (Google will help you) for some reason they swapped the names over, so the Tesla ECC83 had a frame grid (like the Tele ECC803s) and the Tesla ECC803s was a conventional ECC83. The modern JJ is supposed to be a copy of the Tesla, and possibly made on the same equipment although perhaps with inferior materials.

The Russian/East European getter may be consistent with Tesla manufacture, because at the time they would have been in the communist bloc. I believe the Tesla version is supposed to be good, but not as good as a real Telefunken. Given that it looks similar, it is an obvious gift to scammers. I suppose that there is a possibility that it could be an 'official fake' - many Western valve companies relabelled Eastern valves at the end of the valve era. Not all 'Telefunkens' were actually made in a Telefunken factory.
 
Right. The designation ECC803S once was used by TELEFUNKEN for a special quality, rugged, low noise, high reliability, long life version of the ECC83/12AX7 tube, featuring frame grid construction. All we can buy from current production is none of it.

Nearest comes the J/J ECC83S which at least is a frame grid tube.

Best regards!

It would be overly polite to call what J/J does a joke or marketing. Look at what's on Ebay listed under EL509 or 6KG6A. The real tubes are magnoval (large diameter 9 pin) with a plate cap, able to handle peak current of 1400 mA and pulse voltage to 7000 V in horizontal deflection service (line amp) in television sets, much like a 6LQ6, yet those being sold, with the number printed on them no less, have an octal base, no plate cap, and require so-called modifications. It's no wonder I see reports of other types that can't properly saturate in amplifiers to deliver full peak current/power, or others that draw excessive current at the usual bias voltages. They're not what they're being sold as. In the past when various vendors made types sold under the same numbers what they produced may have had some differences but met all of the the industry standard physical and electrical specifications for each specified type.

Silk screening doesn't give another valve type a legitimate number any more than frosting on something found in meadows creates cupcakes.
 
Last edited:
There is a general problem with modern valves. The people who make them either don't know, or don't care, that the valve name is supposed to mean something. ECC99 should have a B7G base. All ECC83 or 7025 should have a low hum spiral wound heater - anything else should be marked 12AX7. PL/EL509 is a beefy colour TV line output valve. Maybe it is due to our modern obsession with style rather than substance. I expect rubbish from the Chinese, but European factories (and American relabellers) ought to know better.

And don't mention the grid support rod tabs with shiny surfaces which won't dissipate much heat in a vacuum!
 
Another weird example is the so called EL156B of current Chinese production. The TELEFUNKEN EL156 once was a rugged, reliable and powerful output pentode with an admittedly somewhat strange 10-pin base, as the designation declares it. This base provided sufficient isolation of the plate pin from all the others. Not so the Chinese tube: It uses the same base and the same pinout as the EL34 - with the same disadvantage of possible break-through between anode pin 3 and heater pin 2, especially when operating at higher voltages in the 800 V region.

Best regards!
 
I believe the Tesla version is supposed to be good, but not as good as a real Telefunken. Given that it looks similar, it is an obvious gift to scammers. I suppose that there is a possibility that it could be an 'official fake' - many Western valve companies relabelled Eastern valves at the end of the valve era. Not all 'Telefunkens' were actually made in a Telefunken factory.

As boywonder tells us that his pictured tube has no Telefunken diamond at the bottom, I'm quite sure that it's a counterfeit: It clearly shows the batchcode U4002400, which means that it was, or should have been, produced at the Telefunken valve factory at Ulm, Germany. But all Telefunken miniature tubes produced at Ulm or Berlin have diamonds at their bases, whereas tubes of other origins, but officially relabeled by Telefunken, never show batchcodes referring to their Ulm or Berlin valve plants.

Best regards!
 
As boywonder tells us that his pictured tube has no Telefunken diamond at the bottom, I'm quite sure that it's a counterfeit: It clearly shows the batchcode U4002400, which means that it was, or should have been, produced at the Telefunken valve factory at Ulm, Germany. But all Telefunken miniature tubes produced at Ulm or Berlin have diamonds at their bases, whereas tubes of other origins, but officially relabeled by Telefunken, never show batchcodes referring to their Ulm or Berlin valve plants.

Best regards!

Well, now I had to look again.....and it appears to have a diamond....but the printing on the glass is clearly not the flakey stuff typical of the other Telefunkens in my stash.
 

Attachments

  • tele diamond.jpg
    tele diamond.jpg
    178.6 KB · Views: 232
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.