Why do old tubes sound better than current tubes?

BLindjim,

Never thought about it but you are right. New old stock sounds like marketing jibberish. Its old, oh but its new! Oh sorry but I meant unused, not new. How do I know it was never used? Well, it reads like new. Yeah right! Funny.

I agree tube rolling can yield benefits, but the book is still open for me on the merit of NOS versus otherwise. I may never know though because so far for me, the fewer tubes, the better. And I like the few that I already have!

I claim to have golden ears in regard to NOS tubes. I bought some bargain NOS tubes that sounded half as good as full price tubes and I sent them back for full price tubes. MY point is, leave bargains for the bottom feeders.
I have bought tubes from "Brent Jesse" for years. A reputable dealer makes his living dealing with "golden ears", he can not afford not to deliver the goods. Since there is absolutely no way to tell an OK tube from the real deal by looking at it, and only if you got the ears can you tell by listining to it; your best option is to only deal with a reputable dealer.

I found this and thought it interesting:

NOS

some old tubes sound great, some sound like crap, some new tubes sound great, some like crap. Sorry ,but the notion that anything nos is better than anything new is just not true. I listen to the sound, not somebody's marketing hype.