rigoletto@
Developer
I believe that you are mistaken. ECC40 is in my opinion "Philips" and does not have a Soviet analog.
Yes, you are right.
Lamps of GM series (rus. ГМ-xxx) and GU (rus. ГУ-xxx) were used in amplifying technique, speaking in Russian "not from a good life".
These are powerful generator high-frequency tubes, large, not economical, with a very inconvenient voltage and current of heat.
Simply, there were no others. The Soviet industry did very well what the military needs, but poorly and reluctantly to do what is necessary for normal people.
Yes, they are transmitting triodes with thoriated tungsten filament, like 211, 10Y, 801A, etc. GM70 is more or less equivalent (in power) to 211, GU48 is replaceable with 833 or 833A (can't remember exactly), and there is the huge GM100.
Those transmitting valves do great SET amplifiers, but they usually are very expensive to make (and run).
One of the characteristics of valves with thoriated tungsten filament is the huge amount of details, but can easily sound thin if not properly designed.
10Y and 801A are my preferred output valves, but they are low power. 10Y should give you less than 1W (usually 0.75W) and 801A about 4W maximum.
The "infamous" Audio Note Ongaku uses 211. ElRog make 300B with thoriated tungsten filament (well, it is not an actual 300B anymore).
At some point I want to manage get GM100 SET amplifiers (would need to be custom made) just to run sub-woofers, just to see how it will sound. The problem would the gigantic size of the transformers (the NAT one is hybrid).
Cheers!
EDIT: I think it is too off-topic already.
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