845 recommendations from actual experience

You can experiment with the newer Chinese exotics and the KR 845, but the day-in-day-out 845 of choice is the Shuguang 845B graphite plate, modeled on the vintage Amperex. I bought backup tubes but my 845Bs are going over 6 years, sounding great, no problems, test well.

Phil

Usual disclaimer about KR 845s: their filament current specs are not according to the original 845 specs, these tubes will go south quickly, unless the amplifier is modified.

The marvelous Viva Aurora need full spec 845 tubes because they fully exploit the 845 tube.
KR tubes and plain Shuguang are not full spec tubes.
Shuguang 845B is the best value for money and great sounding.

Also waiting for future test with Psvane 845t.

Which preamp are you using?

I used the Shuangung 845b with my Viva Solista. I have to say, I could'nt hear a great deal of difference between them and the basic valves that it came with.

As Casouza says, the plate voltage is very high with Viva's use of the valve. Some 845's are'nt appropriate.

If you look on Audioasylum under product reviews, one of the respondents was doing very careful reviews of the various 845 options.