Quote:
There is also som smaller horizontal marking: DJF V3H. I have one which looks very similar to the SQ, but has white lettering and is marked vertical 11312, and horizontal DJL and a symbol "half circle with a dot inside" followed by the number 1.
In addition to the normal prints, tubes usually have one or two letter/number/symbol codes etched to the glass which can be used to interpret when and where the tube was manufactured. I, for example, have three different Amperex dimple disc A-frame orange globes. One of these globes have no factory codes visible, but it has tektronix label, which in my understanding means that the tube has "
passed intense quality screening for critical applications in Tektronix industrial equipment". The other two tubes have the following codes:
GAE
[size=medium]Δ[/size]2K4
and
GA8
[size=medium]Δ[/size]0F3
GA means that the tube is 6DJ8 tube and the last letter or number indicates which batch it is from (also helps estimate the production year range). The other line tells you more about the actual production. The first symbol tells you the plant/factory the tube was made in. In this case the lower right triangle symbol means that the tube was manufactured in Philips, Heerlen, Holland factory. 2K4 is the date code where 2 = last digit of year, 1972; K = month, Nov (A = Jan, etc.); 4 = week of month. So it seems that the GAE and GA8 are 6DJ8 tube types from different batches. The 2K4 is 1972 production and the 0F3 is 1970 production.
The codes in your Ultron seem to indicate that they both are same tube type (DJ = 7ES8/PCC189 even though in some cases DJ equals 7DJ8 tube type) and come from different batch. The half circle with dot inside indicates that the tube was manufactured in Elektroninski Industija, Nis, former Yugoslavia. Not sure about the number but it probably means year (19X1, 1971?). The V3H code could mean (I assume that the first letter is indeed capital V) that the tube was manufactured in Bharat Electronics, India (August 19X3, 1973?). Anyways it seems evident that the tubes were manufactured in different plants. Later Ultron has bought these tubes and relabeled them in their company. Seems like you have to be careful with these Ultron tubes. There could be lots of different tubes labeled as Ultron varying from German and Dutch tubes to Asian tubes. This obviously affects the sound as well.
Photos and sources:
http://www.audiotubes.com/mullcode.htm
http://www.tube-classics.de/TC/Tubes/Valvo/Phlipscode.htm
http://www.triodeel.com/images/philipstubecodes.pdf
http://www.pauls-roehren.de/downloads/PhilipsCodeListAB.pdf (this one seems to be really good source)
Noticed that the guy you informed about his pricing lowered it, thinking about it now? 
Hehe
