Tube recommendations

I’m looking for a lower noise floor & increased detail.

It’s all about vintage Telefunken Military Tubes from the 50s, 60s, 70s
My target was exactly the same when i upgraded, i have upgraded quickly and there was no reason to wait, it was huge upgrade over the stock modern tubes.

You have to understand that NONE of the manufacturer of the modern amps, preamps, phono stages will supply you their gear with NOS vintage tubes, some of them are impossible to find even for tube dealers. And each NOS tube must be selected, cheched by the seller and compiled into a matched pairs, quads etc. This is too complicated (another reason why they are expensive).

You can’t go wrong with the genuine Telefunken tubes in NOS condition, everyone will tell you this, but there are many other brands in UK, USA, Japan to compete with German Telefunkens.

I was happy with Sylvania Gold Brand 12at7WA with gold pins (made in USA) and the price was much lower than Telefunken, the sound was warmer and not as much detailed as the Telefunken tubes.

All i have said applied to the ECC81 / 12AT7 types

Modern amp with great NOS vintage tubes compared to the same modern amp with modern tubes is completely different thing! The only problem is the cost of that old NOS tubes (selected by honest dealer). 

@chakster Thanks. Yes I've noticed they can cost about $500 each.
I'll speak with Andy, I suspect he can suggest some excellent cheaper alternatives.

rca 12at7wa triple mica

InfectionThe ECC83 tube is the same as 12ax7 tube. I recommrnd telefunken 12ax7's if you can find them . Huge upgrade over sto ck sovi et ecc83's which came with my phono stage.Are you sure the third tube is Ecc88 or is it E88cc?the ECC88 is a 6922 tube type. Same here i recommend tekefunken or my favorite,  Siemens.

@tzh21y Thanks for the suggestion. 

@nsp - the number on the tube is 6H23 & underneath that is 9202.