by erichayes » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:55 am
Hi All,
Bud Wyatt (Sheffield Labs, The Mastering Lab) came over this afternoon to get some parts and trade war stories, and I pulled out one of my perfectly functional, rotten looking Mullard EL84s and said "Wazzat?"
He said that Mullard used a getter that was not a pure metal, such as lithium, sodium or magnesium; rather, they chose to use a halide compound that, after time, caused the "bleeding" that we have come to know and love.
My experience with Mullard EL84s is that you can kick the snot out of them, and they just keep working. They have a somewhat higher internal resistance than NOS American and new production Sovteks (in my amps the damping factor is 4.5 vs 5.5 for NOS and Sovtek), which probably accounts for their "warm" (some call it "yellow") sound.
Bottom line: Don't judge a Mullard EL84 by its looks. It's a great tube.
Eric in McKinleyville
Eric in the Jefferson State