Seems like HR's preference for WE based as much on warranty as sq. I believe the Cossor brand LinLai are Asian market only tubes, certainly not the same as Elite or perhaps even their lower level North America exports.
As for warranties, assuming we need to use, the WE or EML are way to go. Based on sq AND warranty the choice becomes more difficult, if warranty issues never become factor then go with best sq. But then we have to take in account that warranty length likely correlates with tube life, you may have to replace tubes with lesser warranty two, even three times in the five year warranty period of WE tubes. And to make it even more complex, lets say Western Electric tubes don't suffer failure over five year period, but they measure only 70% or some lesser amount of new a year or two down the road, which means we're using a tube not operating at peak for whatever warranty time remaining. I'd like to see tube measurements correlated with operating time, but then different equipment may affect tube life differently. So now I'm really confused!
Above presumes warranties only cover failure of tube, don't cover accelerated wear.
