Cheap as chips Russian EL84 ?

[Ian]

Anyone tried ? 100% Feedback.

EL84 6P14P 6П14П USSR New NOS TUBE same date -several different parties in stock | eBay

....and these aren't the cheapest, you can actually pick up four for around £13, though I suppose taxes apply (Russia and Ukraine)

 

[Jazid]

Ideally you'd want the 6p14p eV or eb variant which I believe are factory selected. There's a super rare audio variant as well, the em I think. I have one but it's knackered

The eb/eV are a bit more money, but worth it IMHO.

Lovely durable and sound good.

 

[rabski]

I can't find my spec sheet with all the Russian suffixes, but IIRC, eb and ev are ruggedised, so lower microphonics and longer life. Mind you, more than a few Russian designations and suffixes have more than one meaning, and translations from Cyrilic are fraught with potential misunderstandings. I speak from the bitter experience of someone who is the accidental owner of a fair quantity of utterly useless low current, low voltage valve diodes.

On the positive side, most Russian valves aren't at all scruffy and are electrically as tough as old boots. Most are fair to middling sonically, but some are seriously good, which goes for many Eastern bloc components too. I have quite a quantity of Andy's favourite Russian teflon capacitors, the only problem with which is their enormous size.

 

[calorgas]

I use 6p14p-ev in my kel84 and I really like them. I bought a couple of quads of them NOS & boxed two or three years ago, though iirc it cost me somewhere around £70 delivered for the eight of them so not really cheap as chips, maybe more artisan roast potatoes, but worth it imo. I like the funky Soviet era graphics on the boxes too