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[mikezietsman]

Hey Team,
I have recently bumped into a peculiar "EF806S" tube that if it didn't say "Made in England" I would suspect was Eastern European.

The price was low enough that I threw caution to the wind and went ahead with the purchase (It was included in a batch of mullard and phillips ef86)

Does anyone know anything about this tube? was it truly made in england? Is there anything special (or especially bad) about it? I have a brand new pair in box and the brand is "United Electron"

(Pictures attached - forgive me if it fails to show inline I don't know how to make that function work?

[klaus]

It's not an EF806 and it was not made in England. It's a Sovtek EF86, made in the USSR.
Though generally not on the level of resolution of NOS European tubes like Amperex, Telefunken, Mullard or Valvo, these are often surprisingly quiet and sonics are passable.
They are certainly superior to the Russian EF86 Neumann uses in its U67 Reissue, which are re-branded by New Sensor as "Tung-Sol EF806SC"

[mikezietsman]

Quick and completely unscientific test:

It was as quiet and as unmicrophonic as my solid silver shield telefunken. I was immediately more engaged by the tone of the tele but i couldn't tell you if that was a calibration or volume thing. I just wanted to see if I had been completely burnt on the purchase which I had not. The tube could get me through a session with no problem.

[RuudNL]

Speaking about EF806S tubes: I have had some really bad experiences with JJ Electronic EF806S tubes.
They work for a couple of weeks and then they become very noisy and start to 'crackle'.
Now I have replaced them with Electro Harmonix EF86 tubes with good results.
Until now the EH tubes behave themselves very good. In fact they have a lower noise level than the supplied EF86 in a U67 reissue.

[klaus]

As long as NOS European tubes with their more sophisticated construction and doping and, consequentially, sound, are abundant, I see no reason to save a few $$ but deny myself excellence of performance.