ECF80 Voltages KEL84

[John Caswell]

Hi all,
New FAQ under "Common Problems" re the above. All feed back/comments /insults whatever, here please

John aka Dr John

[john & Jake the dog]

Hi,
am I understanding that all the valves you tested were Mullards as in the table you posted.
If so it is known that these measure better, mine do, than the kit supplied EI ones which was the original point of doing the measurements.

[John Caswell]

Hi John et al,
A valid point apart from a couple of things.
Mullard NOS certainly do not all measure better than Ei they are quite variable as can be seen from the chart.
Although all the valves were branded Mullard at least half were were "foreign" which usually means they were from European factories but in fact some came from Canada, Canadian Westinghouse I would guess, as they were certainly not what I know as "standard" Mullard construction but more like RCA and Brimar.

One of the points I was hoping to make here is that a lot of NOS valves are not as good as they are cracked up to be in, fact they are quite ordinary.
Another myth that has sprung up is that a CV**** valve is "military grade". Not so! All CV means is Common Valve and was a nomenclature dreamed up by the Armed Forces so that valve types were not duplicated in the three services, which was what had happened prior to WWII. The Americans have a similar system but use "VT"

John aka Dr John

[petercom]

The important point to note here is that performance does not change even though the measured voltages wildly differ from the average. If it sounds good don't worry about the measurements!

We'll be amending the instructions to reflect these findings.

[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by John Caswell

Hi John et al,
A valid point apart from a couple of things.
Mullard NOS certainly do not all measure better than Ei they are quite variable as can be seen from the chart.
Although all the valves were branded Mullard at least half were were "foreign" which usually means they were from European factories but in fact some came from Canada, Canadian Westinghouse I would guess, as they were certainly not what I know as "standard" Mullard construction but more like RCA and Brimar.

One of the points I was hoping to make here is that a lot of NOS valves are not as good as they are cracked up to be in, fact they are quite ordinary.
Another myth that has sprung up is that a CV**** valve is "military grade". Not so! All CV means is Common Valve and was a nomenclature dreamed up by the Armed Forces so that valve types were not duplicated in the three services, which was what had happened prior to WWII. The Americans have a similar system but use "VT"

John aka Dr John

Good point John,
I fear that an awful lot of "NOS" Mullards on the market now are rebadged stuff that Philips/Mullard bought in after the british and dutch factories closed but there was still a market for spares in the TV and industrial fields.
Theres a lot of snobbery around new manufacture valves, a lot of it unwarranted i feel. Just an opinion please don't shoot me!
Andy.