JS: How did you come to audio tubes?
Dr. KS: The production of a vacuum tube is always quite similar. When you look at a Chinese or Czech 211 these are copies of what RCA did. RCA developed this type for the US army. It was used in telecommunication devices. We use a different kind of construction. I wanted to get rid of the light bulb stuff. This unexpectedly improved the sound quality. But there is more. We put the getter on a defined voltage potential. It is connected to the plate. This way the tube operates in a more stable way. This is not a new invention but was common practice in CRTs.

JS: Would it be valid to say that ELROG tubes match the quality of the old Telefunken?
Dr. KS: In terms of sound quality, we are the best, no doubt about that. During the first two years we had several problems, but all of them got solved.

JS: How long does it take to manufacture a 211?
Dr. KS: We are a small company. That's why we can only produce a limited number of tubes per day.

JS: Are there plans to make other types besides the 211 and 845?
Dr. KS: I didn't want to mention that since we are quite early in the development phase. But we are working on a 300B. 300Bs are nowadays made by many suppliers. We want to make sure we deliver the best possible 300B. First prototypes are done and we are running comparisons with the historic 300B. Our goal is to make at least an equally performing tube as the Western Electric tube.

JS: Do you have data for the lifetime of your tubes? Are you running long term tests?
Dr. KS: Yes of course. We have sample tubes running continuously. We currently passed the 3000hr mark. Our goal is to reach 5000hrs. But we have not verified that yet since the tests still need to continue.

JS: Dr. Schaffernicht, thank you very much for the interview.