I have used few different makers. No name Chinese ones ( horrible), Russian sovtek ( just as horrible, well, maybe little bit better ), now they are the bad ones. I liked reissued genalex 12ax7. If you are going to stick with new reissued tubes, I think you can't go wrong with it. It has a nice smooth extended highs and clean mid and low. But I think low was little bit on lean side in my system. I used them in my phono, pre amp and mono power amp. But one thing all these new tubes lacks is big 3D soundstage. They can be wide but little flat, front to back. In my system they just can't do it as well as NOS tubes. FYI, I, now use telefunken 12ax7 in all of my gears. I have tried RCA ( like genalex, but little more of all the goods but not as 3D as tele), Mullard is nice, creamy, rich mid, full bass but lack little on top, just a little. Great with voice. Tele is like 60% mullard, 40% RCA with best 3D and wide soundstag, nice high and fast and meaty mid to low. And that's just me and my system.
