NOS tubes

Back during the golden years of tubed based electronics EVERYONE in the electronics industry and military was using this technology, do you think the tubes themselves were important? They were! And not all companies were equal. So yes and no is the answer to the OP's question. As is the case today there are some tubes being made that are STELLAR but most are pedestrian at best.

Matt M

I don’t think that’s true freediver. Current production tubes are made in Russia and China and their construction is very different from the classic tubes made in the US, the UK, Holland, West Germany and many other countries. I’m not saying that they don’t make good tubes today, but they’re not made on the same equipment that the classics were.

There are cases of countries buying tube manufacturing equipment and using it after the original companies shut down in the 1970s. Ei in Yugoslavia bought Telefunken’s old equipment and someone in Japan ( Mitsui maybe?) bought some of Mullard’s old equipment and continued making tubes.

Some people prefer current production, I prefer the classics for the reason hifiman5 stated. Different brands have their own sound characteristics which can be used, along with other accessories, like cables, to tune the sound of your system. It’s just my preference. Some people don’t like to use tubes at all. They prefer SS.

Tim deParavicini (EAR-Yoshino) told me old tubes are better because the people making them did so as a career, with a lot of experience under their belts before they were promoted to the position of making them. To the people making them today, doing so is just a job for now---they are not experts in the field, as were the old-timers. He told me he prefers old Mullards, which may be partly because he is British.

Vacuum Tube Valley had a report on this. Look it up! It seems that the cathode-coating chemicals were of a much purer quality. Vacuum pumping went on longer, resulting in a better vacuum. Grid wire spacing was held to tighter tolerances.      Speaking from my experience as a longtime tube user I prefer using vintage used tubes that still test GOOD over present day production!