Is there a worthy 6922 presently made?

I've been accused (I think) of being a NOS snob. But look; in the 1950s when the 6DJ8 came into being, it was designed to be used as an RF amplifier for the -then- new UHF TV band. That market was HUGE! Billions and billions of tubes. Companies had the incentive and the means to spend a lot of money on research. Formulas for cathode coatings back then were as closely guarded secrets as the formula for Coca-Cola. Since the market was so huge, tubes being the only game in town, makers of the chemicals for those coatings had an incentive to provide a high purity product to the tube mfrs. We audiophiles may think we are an important market; but we are not. Even so, our market is dominated by the big players like AR who put a lot of price pressure on current mfrs. This can lead to QC issues like vacuum purity. It takes more TIME to achieve a high vacuum and time is money. The 6DJ8, 6922, 7308 family of tubes were designed to be 10,000 hour tubes. A decent pair should last several years. What I have a hard time understanding is why someone would pay thousands of dollars for a piece of equipment and then bitch if he has to pay more than a few bucks for tubes. Sure NOS tubes cost more. But they don't make then like they used to and aren't likely to in the future.

Mikesinger, When I said:
"With proper designs, materials, and production techniques, there is no reason why new tubes will not be as good or better than the best of the NOS tubes, if they aren't already."
I meant "in some cases" for some tube models.

I think other tubes are being used more than the 6DJ8/6922 type for new equipment applications in the music industry.
This is good and bad. Good because not as many musicians are tapping into the NOS 6DJ8 type supply and bad because the lower demand in the largest market could slow improvements in new production tubes.

John_tracy: Billions and Billions of 6DJ8? If that is factual there is no scarcity of NOS tubes and the price gouging is even more reprehensible. Where are they?

A EH 6922 is a "selected" Sovtek 6922 ? or completly different : another design and manufacturer ?
Thanks

John_tracy: Billions and Billions of 6DJ8? If that is factual there is no scarcity of NOS tubes and the price gouging is even more reprehensible. Where are they?

I said: Billioins and billions of 'tubes'. Not 6DJ8s. If you just take the # of TVs produced in the '50s and '60s and multiply that buy the # of tubes in them plus their replacements, billions and billions may be an exageration; but not by much. With that kind of market companies can afford to spend a whole lot on research and tooling. And in a competitive market there is a lot more incentive for good quality control. Today the market for tubes is neither large or competitive.

John_tracy: Thanks for the clarification and I agree the tube market these days is not as large as it once was. However, the market for the tubes used in guitar amps, recording equipment, and hifi components has seen steady growth each year since the late 80's and is not an insignificant market as a whole. Although current manufacturers of tube equipment are the ones buying most of the new production tubes, the end consumer these days has higher expectations for sound quality than in the hayday of tubes. I think that demand will be met with even better sounding new production tubes and we are now seeing that trend.