Anyone else having issues with Winged C EL34's?

[abbottamps]

I'm on the third set from the company that has a cathode to heater short right out of the box on one of the two tubes. They're burned in tubes from CE/AES, and I took pictures of the numbers on the second set I had to send back to double check to make sure I didn't get the same pair back by accident or mix up. The third pair is in fact a different set, and one of the two has the short...

Just wondering if anyone else has had an =C= problems lately.

[jpfamps]

I get the impression the =C= valves are not the most robust mechanically.

I've had quite a few failures out of the box, and I've also seen them become noisy in combos. On further investigation it appears that the source of the noise is the internal structure rattling.

[jrfrond]

Do yourself a favor and stay away from Winged-C power tubes. QC is very spotty, and this just doesn't seem to be "their time" at the moment. The company I've had the best luck with in the last two years is JJ, which WAS a stinker at one point, but they seem to have gotten their act together.