Best ECL83 for HD83 ?

[KennyK]

what, in your opinion would be the best ECL83 in the Headphone Amp?

the old description on the old WAD site said that mullard were supplied because they were the best. I got Philips with mine, and the ones in the picture in the shop section here look identical to mine. so I'm assuming that philips were latterly supplied by WAD.

I was looking on watford's site and they have two different ones listed - the Mullard and the Amperex. both are the same price. the Amperex description claims "These were the most popular upgrade valve for the world audio design ECL83 kit amp. We sold out of these many years ago, or so i thought and these come to light at a recent stock check"

so should I buy a pair? or should I buy the mullards? or should I stick with the philips?

[Black Stuart]

Kenny,
I have mullards - and they are nice, very nice. I've no idea about the Amperex.Perhaps someone else can oblige.

BlCK sTUART

[NickW]

Hi Kenny,
Can't help really. I have Mullards, and as Stuart says, they are very nice. Its not too hard to find some - like Watford, and I also picked some up from a trade fair last year in Birmingham. Nick

[KennyK]

yes, that's where I saw the Mullards. they've also got the amperex ones, which got me thinking. I tried to phone but they're on holiday.

so the Mullards would be an improvement over the Philips ones? Not that there's anything wrong with the sound of the philips ones as far as I can tell... that said I've not even run the HD83 in yet. but I don't want to miss out if either of these (Mullard / Amperex) are going to be a significant improvement.

[John Caswell]

Hi KennyK,
It is quite likely that the Mullard and Philips valves are from the same factory as the two companies are the one and the same and used to interchange valves willy nilly.

John aka Dr John

[KennyK]

thanks once again John. I may take a punt on the amperex, since they cost the same as the mullards at watford. it's always handy to have some spares...

[Valves Etc]

Hi Guys,

To save you all a lot of unnecessary comparing - every single ECL83 (and PCL83 - not the same by the way) were made by Mullard in the Blackburn factory. They were simply branded for every company who used them as OEM's and of course re-sellers who had ECL83 in their catalogue listings.

Basically any ECL83 is a Mullard ECL83, and all are identical.

Regards
Rob

[sharkey22]

I have 4 brands of ecl83 (Teonex, Mullard, Amperex and Edicron/ERA). They all sound and look identical.

[Bigmoon]

Thanks for the information and thanks for saving me a few quid!!