New Sensor EL34 Mullard reissue rewievs??

[sebastian]

Hallo and happy Xmas!!!
I bought from Tubestore.com a matched quartet of EL34 Mullard reissue,that are described as a better version of Svetlana S logo EL34.
I put them in my EL34 100 watt custom amplifier (built with a kind of Marshall-y sound) and I noticed,compared to :

-Chinese EL34B (good sounding tubes for high gain)
-SED EL34 (very good sounding tubes...)
-E34L JJ

Less bass,a bit cold midrange,too much crunchy top end and lot of dynamics.
Ok for the dynamics,but the sound is VERY FAR from a real Mullard,and not as musical as Svetlanas(also the chinese EL34 sounds better to my ears,for high gain stuff like Dokken,Zakk wilde,Maiden ecc ecc,but also for blues);and these tubes are a bit expensive,for the value !!!!

Sounds good just for clean playing,bluesy stuff with a plexy cranked up (but not with all the control to the max...) in my opinion,with a hint of 6L6 sound,but with less bass.

Anybody that tried them???

Kind regards
Sebastiano

[snofal]

No , I haven't tried them yet and dont think I will after hearing this.
Don't believe all the hype surrounding the old reissued brands.
Only the name is the same. I would have wished otherwise.

Thanks Sebastiano for the review.

I agree with you on the Svetlana's ; great tubes. (Winged C !!)

Not those from New Sensor.

[gearhead]

There are TWO "Mullard" type reissues.

The ones done by New Sensor (whom I assume own the name) which is a reproduction of the XF4 version of the Mullards (late production), single getter

and

The Groove Tubes GT-EL34-M which is a repro of the XF2, dual getter. The XF2 is the holy grail, so am kind of puzzled why NS didn't do that one.

Have heard much better things about the GT product.

[dave g]

I gave a pair of these a try in an amp I built for a friend last summer. From what I've heard they're just relabeled "S" logo Svetlanas, and they sounded like it.

It seems that no matter what, I always come back to the Winged Cs for all my power tubes...

[gearhead]

Revison: forget the GT tube. A seller, whose opinion I trust, stopped selling them because of a very high failure rate. Sound great when they work, but they gotta work to sound great.

The SED tubes are primo, that's for sures.

[sebastian]

There are TWO "Mullard" type reissues.

The ones done by New Sensor (whom I assume own the name) which is a reproduction of the XF4 version of the Mullards (late production), single getter

and

The Groove Tubes GT-EL34-M which is a repro of the XF2, dual getter. The XF2 is the holy grail, so am kind of puzzled why NS didn't do that one.

Have heard much better things about the GT product.

I have a quartet of Philips branded EL34 but has XF4 stamped on the glass down.Seems to be Mullard rebranded Philips(or Philips made all tubes and some were rebranded Mullard ??? ).They sound A LOT better than new sensor Mullard reissue.I have also some originals Mullard XF2 came from a Sound city PA model,but I prefer the sound of XF4 ,very similar to my Tesla/Marshall branded from late 80's....probably my XF2's are a bit tired.....
The strange thing is,(in my opinion) that old New sensor/Svetlanas S logo
sounded ok a bit aggressive but more warm in the bass and low mids,than Mullard reissues,were good tubes for heavy metal stuff!!!!

SED C logo EL34 kicks ass!!!!

[muchxs]

The Groove Tubes GT-EL34-M which is a repro of the XF2, dual getter. The XF2 is the holy grail, so am kind of puzzled why NS didn't do that one.

Oh good. I have a pretty good stash of NOS Xf2s I'm saving for something special.

I have a quartet of Philips branded EL34 but has XF4 stamped on the glass down.Seems to be Mullard rebranded Philips(or Philips made all tubes and some were rebranded Mullard ??? ).They sound A LOT better than new sensor Mullard reissue.

Yeah, those are Mullards. I don't care how they're labeled or whether they're Xf1, Xf2, Xf3 or Xf4 they're great.

More on topic... why mess around with any of the pretender "reissue" tubes? There are still lots of NOS Siemens EL34s available for just a little more than Sovteks or JJs.

[snofal]

There are still lots of NOS Siemens EL34s available for just a little more than Sovteks or JJs.

Where do you get Siemens tubes , a reliable address ??



Alf

[moj067]

I've got the GT Mullard's and am quite happy w/them. The XF2's of which I have a stash of as well, still have more upper mid and high "magic" for lack of a better word. The real Mullards for some reason sound more involving.
I still play more w/ the GT's they're just good workhorses. Save the real deals for recording. YMMV

[dave g]

There are still lots of NOS Siemens EL34s available for just a little more than Sovteks or JJs.

Do you happen to have a link? I see them for $150-$200 a pair all over but I'd love to get some for my express if I could get them a bit cheaper.

[snofal]

Take care what you buy ; there are also the ones with a pointed top made in Yugoslavia and are really EI tubes.

[IMG:450:578]http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233 ... goslEi.jpg[/img]

These are the ones you want:

[IMG:595:800]http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233 ... l34pic.jpg[/img]


And RFT rebranded some too:

[IMG:300:408]http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233 ... s-EL34.jpg[/img]

Alf
[/img]

[gearhead]

With those older tubes, be very careful of the center pin (phenolic). I've fried TWO tubes because the center pin sheared off when I was blindly putting them in from the topside. Line em up by eye.

One was a Siemens and one was a Tesla. OUCH. The second one took out part of the amp too.

[doctord02]

I'd also like to know of a reliable supplier of Siemens EL34's... I havent seen them below $100 a pair in a long time.

[Roe]

I found a lot of them for 70 usd. but they will only ship to the usa: http://mesa.stores.yahoo.net/elsiemst.html

[Andy Le Blanc]

I'd be interested in hearing a review of these new mullards
after a known break in period....