Favorite nos tube?

Dekay; are you comparing Sovtek 6922 pre-amp tubes to 300B amp tubes? I have an SF Line 2 pre-amp, and I like the stock 6922 Sovteks-- very neutral and detailed; some say sterile and boring. But just yesterday I put in a set of Valvo 6DJ8's (at twice the price of Sovteks) and am already noticing a slightly more "tubey" sound, which in this case could be good. The Valvos are smoother, warmer, more detailed, and a bit more prominent in mids and low treble in this pre-amp. These changes are subtle, but I'm starting to think pretty worthwhile-- too soon to tell for sure. FWIW, in their new Special Edition pre-amps, SF is using the Valvos. Cheers. Craig

RCprince, its Teles for the Jadis front end, exactly for the reasons you propose. Would love to try the Bugle Boys but have not found a source for them so far.

Craig: I recently picked up an Audion 300B stereo amp that uses (one) 6922 and (one) 5687 as well as a pair of 300B's. I have three sets of output tubes so far (stock Chinese mystery tubes, Svetlana's and JJ/Tesla's) and find that I prefer a different 6922 with each set of 300B tubes. The sharper sounding Sovtek or better yet the old production Soviet 6H23EB with the softer Svetlana 300B's and the old fuller/softer sounding Amperex PQ and standard/USA white label 6922 with the more strident JJ and Chinese 300B's. So, I am comparing the sound of these combinations of tubes. It's kind of funny in that I never rolled tubes in my hifi amps in the 70's and 80's but I did roll them in my Fender Guitar amps in order to get the sound that I was looking for. It's a lot more difficult to chose now that I am not basing my opinion solely on the sound of a Strat or Telecaster. LOL. I am also trying out different 5687's with black plate designs. Sylvania Gold murders the mystery National 5687 that came with the amp (which sounded very murky) and I have a Tung Sol black plate 5687 on the way. The Tung Sols are readily available but I see people paying very high prices on Ebay for them. Go figure. There are a couple of people that I met on the web that also have the Audion Silver Night and we will be pooling info as each of us try out different combinations. I have also found that it helps to clean the pins on the tubes with alcohal and if needed a brush.

Detlof, you use Teles for the MC stage (6DJ8s) as well? Those are the ones I have to keep replacing, and the Amperex are hard to find.

Telefunken E88CC for rich tubey sound
Siemens 1960's E188CC for silky transparent and full spectrum sound