18Watt.com

I just visited an old time Friend of mine who works for the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) and I found out that he has been using the beta testing tubes of JJ's new EZ81's. He got them through his military fund (he teaches history etc.. at the air force academy, and has several old tube radars which he keeps operational.), and from what he says about their reliability, they seem to be very very good! I for one am interested, and here's the scoop from JJ. They're supposed to being marketing them in May 2005...we'll give them a bit?

http://www.jj-electronic.sk
Cheers,

Nish

May 2005 eh...

I had heard similar dates for their EF86 (JJ production plans of that have been confirmed by Bob from Eurotubes), I wonder what's causing the delay. Hope it's nothing permanent as theirs are generally among the best of current production tubes.

The EZ81 is on the market already, the EF86 comes at the end of the year.
They want the EF86 to be extreem noiseless thats why it takes longer.

Henk

Henk,

IF they accomplish a noiseless EF86 that will be quite a feat. Even in the glory days nobody had a truly stable EF86.

rjgtr, I'm not sure how much of this is true. It definitely was more fragile than the ECC83, but for example Vox only started to have real problems with EF86s when bassists started playing AC30/4s. The AC15, and guitar players in general, supposedly didn't have any problems with EF86s.

Got this info from the Dick Denney book.

Edit: by this I'm meaning to say that while some special care should be taken with an EF86 to protect it from vibrations and shocks, I feel that people have become overly paranoid by ever-increasing horror stories. You know how it is with internet lore and word-of-mouth.

I wasn't aware of the EF86 progress...but I didn't know you could get the EZ81 yet! Where perchance can I get one?

Cheers,

Nish

I'm using some old Mullard and GE (British) EF86's, and they all go microphonic in my combo at high gains and high volumes. I'm really looking forward to the JJ's when they come out. I love the sound of the EF86's in front of the 18Watt PI and Power amp. The JJ EL84's are also my favorite so far.

Looks like Eurotubes has the JJ EZ81's for $12.

CSB

Richard wrote,

IF they accomplish a noiseless EF86 that will be quite a feat. Even in the glory days nobody had a truly stable EF86.

I have a little stock Phillips and Mullard Stamped EF86 's made by the Phillips factory in Heerlen and most of them are good enough. So it must be possible to make usable low noise EF86 tubes. I did send some of this tubes to the JJ factory and I know they have some good results already.
In the Tesla days they also could make a very good EF86 so we have to wait and see what they can do.
EF86 amps are hard to beat with any other tube.

Henk