I'm pretty sure the version I have, with the plate cap, is the very latest one; I also believe the the nice folk at JSV believe what they told you. (BTW I bought my used Quad 989s from them--drove from Phoenix to get them; they're very nice people and treated me very well.) If you don't have a platecap, I think you're stuck with the Chinese capless 805s. Ask Divergent Tech., the distributor (in Canada; http://www.divertech.com/home.html ); they may have the platecap cables, instructions, etc.
I have 5 different types/brands of 6L6s. The Philips and Sylvania 6L6WGBs appear to be identical in construction but for base color; they have smaller bottles than the metals or Peavys. The obviously old RCA and Ken-Rad metal versions have identical exteriors. The Peavy (guitar-amp) 6L6GCs have larger bottles. All I know about these is that they operate correctly in my amps; I simply have not taken the time to compare them carefully, and remember--I'm no GEA so I can't hear subtle differences quickly...or sometimes ever. Just buy some on eBay; they're NOT expensive.
In another lifetime (25 years ago) as a vinylite, I had an ARC SP-6B preamp and compared lots of 'X7s. At the time, I fell in love with the overall rightness of the sound of Telefunken smoothplate ECC83s, but I haven't gone crazy enough to try to buy any recently. I suppose I'll just stick with the GT 'Ms' and the Eis.
Do pursue this platecap issue; it'll allow you to use all the old 805s that are still floating around and are not yet too expensive.
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I have 5 different types/brands of 6L6s. The Philips and Sylvania 6L6WGBs appear to be identical in construction but for base color; they have smaller bottles than the metals or Peavys. The obviously old RCA and Ken-Rad metal versions have identical exteriors. The Peavy (guitar-amp) 6L6GCs have larger bottles. All I know about these is that they operate correctly in my amps; I simply have not taken the time to compare them carefully, and remember--I'm no GEA so I can't hear subtle differences quickly...or sometimes ever. Just buy some on eBay; they're NOT expensive.
In another lifetime (25 years ago) as a vinylite, I had an ARC SP-6B preamp and compared lots of 'X7s. At the time, I fell in love with the overall rightness of the sound of Telefunken smoothplate ECC83s, but I haven't gone crazy enough to try to buy any recently. I suppose I'll just stick with the GT 'Ms' and the Eis.
Do pursue this platecap issue; it'll allow you to use all the old 805s that are still floating around and are not yet too expensive.
.