Bugle Boys; France vs Holland?

Ricardo

Anyone knows if there are considerable sound differences between the Holland and France made Amperex?

Thanks.

Ricardo

Never mind; found something:

"Amperex is also a favorite brand among audiophiles. Their quality is on par with Mullard and Telefunken tubes. There are 2 main plants that produced Amperex small tubes. One was in Holland and the other was in France. Amperex had different logos on their tubes depending on the target market and the age of the tube. The most popular logo among audiophiles is the "bugleboy" logo which appeared during the late 1950's through the late 1960s'. During the 1970's the logo changed to the orange colored "world" logo. There was also a plain white Amperex logo which appears on tubes regardless of age. I think that these tubes were labeled for OEM applications, but I'm not really sure. The PQ logo was placed on "premium quality" tubes that were designed for industrial applications. They were improved versions of the standard tube which usually had superior microphonic and noise characteristics and also met military shock and vibration specs. Many of the PQ tubes were designed specifically for computers (!) and had special characteristics to survive those applications. Tubes labeled with JAN (Joint Army Navy) were the same tubes PQ only they had been labeled for the military.

Bugleboy made in France. Excellent tube. Many say better than the Holland made ones."

Just one opinion, I know

From here:

http://www.vacuumtubes.com/12at7.html

george daniel

interesting read Ricardo,, thanks,, I did not know that amperex's were also manufactured in France.

at this point one needs to be a detective of sorts

http://reviews.ebay.com/Who-Made-My-Amperex-12AX7_W0QQugidZ10000000007946831?ssPageName=BUYGD:CATLISTINGS:4

Ricardo

Here's some more interesting info:

"So you just bought an Amperex 12AX7 and it was made in Holland, right? Weeelll - not so fast.

Amperex was originally an American tube manufacturer on Long Island, NY. The Dutch tube giant Phillips bought the company after WWII. During the time they were replacing the equipment at Amperex with Dutch equipment, they imported tubes from their other plants in Europe and labelled them with the Amperex brand. After the changeover of equipment, they continued this practice of importing tubes from their European plants while making tubes on Long Island as well - labelling them all the same.


What tubes did Phillips produce in Europe? At one time or another they either owned the label or the manufacturing plant for Amperex, Mullard, Valvo, Mazda, Tungsram, Miniwatt, Dario, La Radio Technique, Phillips ECG (Sylvania) and others. They also bought tubes from Telefunken, Edison Swan, Brimar, Marconi, Ferranti, G.E.C. and others and relabelled them.

The result of all this is that you will find the Amperex label, including the Bugle Boy, on tubes made in Germany, France, Italy, England, Holland, Spain, the US, and even Yugoslavia.

Learn to read the Phillips tube codes (two short lines of numbers/letters/symbols on the bottle near the base) to find out who really made that Amperex in your hand. There are resources on the net for this. The code tells you what kind of tube it is, which engineering revision it was manufactured under, which plant it was made at, and the date of manufacture.

That's when you find out that beautiful 12AX7 with "Amperex" and the Bugle Boy on it was made at the Blackburn Works Ltd and is really a Mullard! or an Ei or ?"

george daniel

Well, on this rainy,dismal, and coldish day,, I have a pair of Tele's made in Dec of 66,,and some Amperex's,, made in holland in the 50's,, let's see what else I've got,,, can you tell I'm kinda bored,,looking up date codes,, and wishing that I had the money for some of the Mullard Xf series EL-34's? Wonder how the re-issues sound.