***Is It Me Or Have Todays Modern Tubes Gotten REALLY REALLY Good***

That does not match my experience with an Audio Research LS2B MKII Pre.  First owner here and about 25 years old.  I've auditioned newer stuff from time to time but it sends them packing. Came from AR with a 6DJ8...  tried bunches of them from Bugle Boys to Valvos, Telefunken and such and then moved to CCa6922 's with many tested and none as good as the Siemens and Halske grey plate from late 50's and early 60's.  Had pinched waist 1959 Valvo Cca 6922's that were magnificent but the issue with all classic tubes...  forget the 5,000 or 10,000 hours nonsense...... if you get a couple hundred hours of prime performance before the bass starts deteriorating or the tube gets strident you are lucky. ... and I say that after rolling this unit for almost all of it's 25 years.  Using 6N23P Volshad Rocket circa 1977, silver version and it's really, really good.  As with the best Siemens and Valvos it's not listening to music, it's going to a performance.

Nice amp , and yes modern tubes are good . However , I dare you to roll in 4 NOS  Telefunken signal tubes and say it isn’t an improvement. But everyone knows it’s subjective . I must be stupid as I have more invested in tubes , than my amp . But it’s been fun . Hi “ My name is Mike, Im a Tube Addict “ . With all the NOS stuff I have , I absolutely love the Tungsol KT 120’s . And I hope I never run out of Svetlana Winged “ C “ KT 88’s . I’ll keep coming back 😎

For 6SN7 tubes for my preamp and amp, I am really quite happy with the Shuguang Treasure CV181-Z and CV181-T tubes. They might not be quite as good as the very best NOS war time tubes, but they are more consistent, less expensive, and easier to get.

For KT88 power tubes, I like the Shuguang Treasure KT88-Z and KT88-T tubes better than any of the Russian tubes out there. I don’t even consider NOS for these tubes as I am not going to spend the money for the old Genalex tubes.

For, 6922 tubes, I could not find a new production tube that sounded good. So I invested in late 50’s and early 60’s Siemens and Telefunken NOS tubes. In the end, I used an adapter with Western Electric 396A/2C51 tubes. These were the best tubes I ever heard in 6922 applications. Russian Reflektor 6NP3-E tubes with the same adapter are really good too. Better than the much more expensive 6922 tubes.

I really like the Genelex Gold Lion
reissues for power tubes. Also, the Mullard
 reissue for small signal tubes.

Never personally used tubes for hifi stuff. But I have played guitar for 30 years and I must say tubes make a huge difference in my various amps of different manufacture. Both power and preamp. Just my experience. Old black plate RCA 12ax7s, 6v6s and 6l6s sound much better than the new variants. I understand it's different for hifi and guitar. I'm just getting into this game and I must say it's quite something. Deciding right now between tube or SS. Anyhow.... I really enjoy the discussions and knowledge shared here. Thank you!