I said I will dwell for a while in the P8A territory, purpose being to understand more about EL3(N) and different available versions and equivalents. And the reason is that everywhere you read about these everyone praises or uses the WIRAG version while not speaking too much about others. Here and there you can find a word or two about Tungsram which everyone sees as a lesser version. But no problem, as a preparation for the pentode tribute amp I have to convince myself about the situation.
Here we are, Tungsram EL3 (as written on the top of the tube) with Philips EL50. I let them as output because I already know quite well the situation of those with WIRAG EL3N and recently played them quite a while with the RT EBL1 which is, in fact, another EL3N pentode disguised.
Now, I have seen some black glass ones without any red coating and some like these with grey glass and red coating on base. The shape of the glass is smaller, like a kind of dwarf EL3 compared with the more beautiful Wirag (and also RT). But are these so bad as others are saying? Honestly they are not so terrible, what I heard from the beginning is that these are much warmer and an idea less clear than the WIRAG. More bass, less separation, less rich tone than the WIRAG. But not terrible, I have tubes which are much worse than these. What to say, for me EL50+EL3N is a match made in heaven and maybe it puts an advantage on the Tungsram EL3 making it more bearable, but I was expecting to be much worse.
I will spend more with these, my plan is to evaluate a "low cost" scenario of Tesla 4654 with Tungsram EL3. A kind of response of the Eastern Europe to our nice pentodes from western side. As a first step I wanted to compare them a little bit.
So the community was, in general, right, these are under the level of the WIRAG EL3N. But my expectation was that they are not listenable, here I would say I could live with these if not other were available. And I think not the warmer nature and bass makes me dislike them, they are somehow congested and the separation is problematic, also an idea "dull" sounding.
Here we are, Tungsram EL3 (as written on the top of the tube) with Philips EL50. I let them as output because I already know quite well the situation of those with WIRAG EL3N and recently played them quite a while with the RT EBL1 which is, in fact, another EL3N pentode disguised.
Now, I have seen some black glass ones without any red coating and some like these with grey glass and red coating on base. The shape of the glass is smaller, like a kind of dwarf EL3 compared with the more beautiful Wirag (and also RT). But are these so bad as others are saying? Honestly they are not so terrible, what I heard from the beginning is that these are much warmer and an idea less clear than the WIRAG. More bass, less separation, less rich tone than the WIRAG. But not terrible, I have tubes which are much worse than these. What to say, for me EL50+EL3N is a match made in heaven and maybe it puts an advantage on the Tungsram EL3 making it more bearable, but I was expecting to be much worse.
I will spend more with these, my plan is to evaluate a "low cost" scenario of Tesla 4654 with Tungsram EL3. A kind of response of the Eastern Europe to our nice pentodes from western side. As a first step I wanted to compare them a little bit.
So the community was, in general, right, these are under the level of the WIRAG EL3N. But my expectation was that they are not listenable, here I would say I could live with these if not other were available. And I think not the warmer nature and bass makes me dislike them, they are somehow congested and the separation is problematic, also an idea "dull" sounding.
Last edited:
