I guess it's time for me to continue on the path of the small red series tubes I plan to use in Eternity in input. I started this with EBC3 and ECH3, but there is a long road ahead. Let's continue, what he have here?
Well, a small invasion. But those more important are:
These are types I never tried before. Well, except ECH3 but that one was the Mullard straight bottle and here we have some french (I assume RT) made ST shaped one. Of course, my curiosity led me to try first ECF1.
Because I had no clue how to bias these I had to measure and those measurements led me to bias these around -11.3V. This is a medium value, one needed -10.2V and other -12.4V to reach 180V/4mA so well, I had to choose a medium value for both to be around that operating point. Gain is low for these, as expected from some pentodes. So I had to go above what I normally like on this amplifier, 1-2 o'clock was providing me the same volume level I am normally listening. So gain is below 20 for sure, hard to say exactly how much. In the datasheet they mention only the triode section with a mu = 20. Soundwise, dark and relaxed. This is the sound I am usually associating with RT. I was not very impressed about this, I prefer dark relaxed on output and sharper higher gain tubes on input.
Next I wanted to hear the EBF2.
Here I had to determine again the bias, and these bias around -11.6V as a medium value, so very close or the same as the ECF1. These had the same low gain but I was surprised to find a sound more transparent and less dark than the others. This was a surprise for me, I was expecting these to sound similar. Well, this remains a point of investigation for me because I like more what I hear on EBF2 than on ECF1.
It will take months for me to evaluate all, it's not even my prio 1. I want to listen more to EBC3 and EBF2 and try to see why I like these more than the others. The rest can sit in a box until I will have more ideas with them. A secondary purpose of mine is to obtain more clues about date codes and construction elements to be able to understand more about EL50 origins.
In the end, some nice detailed photos of what we discussed: