This goes out to any interested EL84 users. I have a single ended EL84 amp, a Grommes PHI-26. I have done some tube rolling and have finally found a real winner.

At the suggestion of the designer, I tried the Soviet era 6P14P-EV. That is 6n14n-EB, more or less, in cyrillic. I obtained examples from Europe at: http://www.audiotriodes.com/

EL84M tubes and new Electro-Harmonix stock are in no way the equivalent of these NOS 6P14P-EV units, despite E-H (New Sensor, actually) now using the old Reflektor factory in Saratov where these were manufactured.

Noise is low to the point of extinction. In my amp's triode mode, the improvement over EH or JJ's was not subtle. Night and day. Tone is in a whole different class and power, mysteriously, is up at least 6dB, maybe much more. The tubes will make the trip over just fine, as the specs for mechanical toughness are off the scale. These were designed for military field use, after all.

The only strange thing about them is warmup. Even a lengthly warmup does not prevent the volume level from starting off very low and building up to normal after one song or so. At least on my amp. So wait for it. Playing music seems to do the trick. Again, no explaination.

There are plenty of Russian sites that have this tube, but I don't trust them personally. I can vouch for Audiotriodes, and their shipping was dirt cheap. The prices are in Euros, just use a converter to figure it out if you are not located in Europe.

The bad news is that guitar amps are burning up NOS tubes at a furious rate, and the new stock plant is having "Russian" troubles. http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatur...newsensor.html

Clark in Peoria