Albert, I'm sure you've listened to many tubes that I never will, but I suspect that if I could, I might only somewhat disagree with you in degree, not in kind. I do not at all dispute that tubes can greatly affect the quality of the sound, and that there are times when an older tube, even an extensively used tube, can have the superior sound. Most of my tube-rolling using vintage tubes has taken place in my guitar amps, and there has even been an occassion when the best sounding tube was an "obsolete" metal-case oldie. I will admit that these experiments were done with tubes that I just scrounged up, not pristine NOS bought for big bucks from a dealer. But I have also done a little dabbling with mail-order NOS in my hi-fi preamp, and mostly been disapointed, with noisy, ringy results. And with power output tubes, I've always found that freshness does matter. Obviously, it's possible to manufacture either a superior or an inferior tube, and it is probable that some of the best would have been made in the tube's heyday. But it is also possible that someone could make a top-quality tube today. In addition, I think it is quite likely that some amount of snobbery and opportunism has attached itself to the NOS market, as will happen with any scarce or no longer made commodity. If I had the patience and werewhithal to hunt down premium NOS and do all the comparing, maybe I would reach conclusions similar to yours. But this is clearly not for everybody, and motivation, in the form of dissatisfying sound, would also have to be present. I think that in a case such as the Svetlana EL-34's, that someone might be manufacturing a tube right now that is about as good as anything ever made, a position some reveiwers have taken on this tube. I like what I hear with this product enough that in my rig, I am not really curious to go down the NOS road (and they've been very durable). YMMV!
