JJ's ECC803 reliability?

[Masco]

Bought some of their long plate (not gold pin) 12AX7's to try out and have been having some problems w/ noise, hum, microphonics and just plain pre-mature failure. Anyone else having problems or did I get a Friday batch?

[Firestorm]

I haven't had failures, but long-plate tubes are frequently more microphonic. The gold pin ones appear to have the pins plated after assembly and test, so you get the better ones of the batch.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Sometimes every day is Friday at the JJ plant. QC varies all over the map. You might have to source your '803's from a snooty hi fi tube dealer who will actually listen to 'em before selling, extra $$. For the record where did you get yours?

[Reeltarded]

Whoever told someone somewhere that these tubes were acceptable for use in an amp is either new, on drugs, or the manufacturer.

Horrible. Every tube is useless.

[xtian]

I've had great luck during the past three years with JJ. Bought most from CEDIST, some from Apex Jr.

[cbass]

Not tried the longplate one The short plate one I have went microphonic after little use. Just as well sounded like dog shit

[stephenl]

I have an 803 in th V2 position in my KF50ish amp - no problems. Sounds better in that position than the Mullard and TungSol reissues.

[C Moore]

I have used several of their other AX7 (not long plate).
They were less expensive and seemed to be the equal of most other tubes...
...as usual, depends on amp, speakers, guitar, hands, ears.
best

[M Fowler]

I think I've only used the 803's once, I use the cheapest JJ's I can find in most builds.

I've tried other brands like Mullard reissue, Northern, Preferred Series, EH, GT, Ruby, Sino, EH, Sovtek, TAD, and others but JJ-12AX7 work just fine.

I do like to get some NOS when not over priced.

[Stevem]

I have had it both ways with that tube.
The ones I got from AES had quite a few duds in short order and the ones I got from ET did not fail, but failed to to be as good in there rating /testing ET said they where as compared to my testing of them.
Sound wise I love the darn things as they are a good step above the Tung Sol reissue and there larger plate structure is a + in the life span dept!

[Masco]

Sometimes every day is Friday at the JJ plant. QC varies all over the map. You might have to source your '803's from a snooty hi fi tube dealer who will actually listen to 'em before selling, extra $$. For the record where did you get yours?

CE dist/AES.

[Masco]

Whoever told someone somewhere that these tubes were acceptable for use in an amp is either new, on drugs, or the manufacturer.

Horrible. Every tube is useless.

Beginning to think that. Been using the short plates for quite a while now and thought I'd try the long for grins. Every time I plugged one into a circuit that has cathode switching, I got hum. Replace w/ a short plate, quiet as could be. Not grinning.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Sometimes every day is Friday at the JJ plant. QC varies all over the map. You might have to source your '803's from a snooty hi fi tube dealer who will actually listen to 'em before selling, extra $$. For the record where did you get yours?

CE dist/AES.

Funny t'ing CE/Antique have recently been mentioned as the major supplier of JJ in the USA. If you get tested matched output tubes, maybe a pretty good chance you'll get good ones. Preamp tubes, probably straight from the arrival box to your ship-out box.

Eurotubes was built on importation and distro of JJ tubes. Some claim they have a "special deal" with JJ to get their prime product. Their website has the story of how ET's owner, a Slovak himself, visited the home country in the 90's, toured the JJ factory & hobnobbed with the top guys, then started to import the tubes on his return. Whether ET actually listens to pre tubes before selling I don't know. But experience from Stevem and others seems to indicate they're a better source for the pre tubes at least. One drawback, AFAIK ET offers no discount to builders, repairers, quantity buyers etc.

[Tonegeek]

I get a bad tube from CE every so often, but they are real good about sending replacements. Got a bad pre from ET once and they acted like that had never happened before, but did send me a replacement. Regarding hum, (in the D style amps anyway) JJ, Mullard RI, EH all hum in V1. The only new production tube so far I have found that does not hum in V1 is the TAD 7025/12ax7 HG (stands for "High Grade" I think and not "High Gain", which it isn't). Nothing is free though and you may or may not like the tone or mild gain of that tube. I thought it to be thin when I first tried it but now I view it as transparent. It will give some chime to a dark/middy amp but lead fatness may be better served by another brand. I will say I did not find the Mullard with its long plate any noisier than the short plate EH or JJ. So (to Masco), you might want to try the Mullard RI and see if it is any better than the JJ 803. I like it, just not in V1.

[BTF]

I've used the ECC803s in both my preamp builds and some amp heads (I isolate my heads, so microphonics are not an issue).

While I have yet to have a defective ECC83s, I have had 3 bad ECC803s. Two exhibited an extraordinarily bad hum after a bit of use , and one had a short inside the plate that made the valve pop badly.

These were from the initial first-run of the 803s.