New EI 12AX7 - OK?

[TheWonders]

I was browsing for some EI 12AX7 tubes and found new ones at AES labeled "Newest Production". From what I've been able to gather, EI went through a period in the last few years when the quality was a bit lacking, but the newer tubes are supposed to be of good quality. Is this correct, or should I hold out for some older gray plate tubes?

[soundmasterg]

Honestly I haven't gotten any EI 12AX7's since the last batch I got from AES/CE had the silver plates and were inferior to the older grey plates, so for me its been a couple years. There were a lot of rumors about EI floating around.....that they were bombed in the 1996 war....that they stopped production of tubes.....that Western Electric bought them, etc. All were untrue however apparently. One guy lives in Nis, Serbia where the factory is and he said they still make tubes, but were not exporting them at the moment, and their quality isn't as good as it used to be. If they've corrected some former problems and came out with better QC, then I may have to take a look at them. In the picture one AES's site it shows a grey plate.....so who knows. you may post on some dedicated amp bbs sites and see if anyone has any info.

greg

[sharkboy]

Western Electric does still have the announcement on their website. I have sent them email several times inquiring about this and received no answer.

http://westernelectric.com/

After that WE release came out Tube-shop.com, who is (was?) the distributor for Ei disputed the claim. I talked with a couple of important folk from the tube industry who declined comment on the status of the Ei company.

Generally, the Ei tubes with shiny plates are not favored in reviews I've read. There is some belief that this causes problems for the tube due to bad composition of the metal in the plates. I have had two and there was nothing to distinguish their behavior from my gray plate ones. And as Greg suggests, if we had a dollar for every fib told on the internet about Ei alone, we'd have a lot of money with which to buy lots of tubes.

[TheWonders]

Mark and Greg, thanks for your responses. I decided order a couple of them from AES, so I'll get to hear the tubes in my amp. I figure that if I'm not impressed, I can always sell them on eBay to some audiophile.