In The Beginning

My name is Bob Pletka. I am a fellow musician and tube Hifi enthusiast who started playing at the age of five for which I wish to thank my Father. THANK YOU!!   Playing, writing and listening to music is one of the greatest joys in my life and if that were not enough I was blessed in meeting my wife through music. A year after we played in our first band together we married and still play music together. How amazing is that! In early 1998 while planning a trip to Europe I acquired some ECC83’s, E34L’s, 6L6GC’s and KT88’s made by JJ Electronic. I was very interested in trying these tubes for two reasons. Number one I had heard that they were being made in one of the old Tesla factories and I liked using the NOS Tesla’s a LOT better than the Chinese or Russian tubes. Number two I was going to be there and if the JJ tubes were any good I planned on finding them and bringing back a trunk full for personal use. I was very impressed by the workmanship and even more impressed with the sound of the JJ’s. I called a few friends and we began comparing the JJ’s to my stash of NOS tubes which include Telefunken, Mullard, RCA, G.E, Amprex and Brimar’s to name a few. We were all shocked! The JJ's really held their own against all my NOS tubes. After spending a few days with relatives just outside of Prague in the Czech Republic my cousin Jiri Pletka found and set up a meeting with two different tube manufacturing companies. KR Enterprise and JJ Electronic. I was introduced by my cousin Jiri Pletka to Jamona Jurcho, the owner of JJ Electronic. Mr. Jurcho explained his background in tubes which included working for Tesla in research and development for many years. He was also very accommodating in answering all of my questions. He was a wealth of information having been in the tube business for over thirty years. He explained that the JJ tubes while sharing a similar internal design to some of the old Tesla’s had been redesigned to sound and perform better. Mr Jurcho agreed to sell me the tubes I wanted and asked if I would like to be an importer / distributor? I thought for a moment, agreed and upon returning to the states with a travel bag full of JJ Electronic tubes I jumped through the hoops necessary to establish an import business and Eurotubes became a reality in May of 1998 carrying the full line of JJ Electronic tubes and dealing in NOS tubes. The first pic is from my original meeting with JJ. My Father took the picture below during lunch. The guy with the BIG smile on the left is me, my cousin Jiri is next to me and Jan an employee of JJ next to him and Mr Jurcho on the right. On my second visit to Prague and to JJ Electronic I had the opportunity to take some great video and still pictures in the factory which you can see by taking the JJ Electronic FACTORY TOUR.  The trip was wonderful and the Jurcho's were great hosts and once again treated us to an exquisite lunch which included the best soup I've ever had which was Garlic soup! The locally made beer was also top notch. The main course for me was a Slovak spicy Schnitzel and it was great! In the picture below Mr Jurcho is again on the right and my son Eddie is next to me ( the guy who is still smiling ) and my cousin Jiri is on the left.      On my latest visit to Prague and to JJ Electronic I was accompanied by my lovely wife Carla. We had a great time and spent four days this time with the Jurcho's talking about new products and the recent changes at the JJ new JJ factory. The first pic is in front of the new facility which is a great building with five floors and room to grow! The second pic is lunch at the top of the Bratislava bridge in the UFO room along with a shot of the restaurant, a look at the observation deck and the view. Mr Jurcho is next to Carla on the left and Tomas Jurcho is next to me on the right. Tomas who is Mr Jurcho's son has taken over a big role in the JJ company working with his father, and has been wonderful to work with over the past few years. A huge thank you from Carla and I for a great visit and as always, incredible hospitality!