How expensive are best NOS tubes ? And how difficult to find ?


Phono stages, preamps and power amps. Any non-Chinese adequate substitutes? I know that if you have Lamm, Vladimir has a few sets of Russian tubes in stock for each particular unit, and it is not really expensive to retube them. But if you have, say, VAC or CAT or Atma-Sphere and want best longest lasting and most reliable tubes, what then ? Don't ask me why not Chinese, I can't talk about it here except that I don't trust their quality control.
inna
Just purchased a Rogue Pharaoh integrated and am not familiar with tube jargon but read that "rolling" tube can be fun experiment if you know what you're doing. 

Welcome to the world of tubes.  The Rogue should be a nice sounding integrated.  I know we have some Rogue fans here.

Tube rolling is just trying different tube brands in your amp to tune the sound to your liking.  There are also variations on the 12AU7 like the 5814 and many others that work where a 12AU7 is called for.   So there are a lot of tubes that you can roll into your amp, but it's not a cheap form of entertainment.  The Rogue has 2 12AU7s from what I can tell and any 12AU7 should be able to work in your amp.  What brand of tubes did it come with? 

Why don't you start a new thread asking Rogue owners what tube brands they found to work well  in their amps.  They can probably give you a better educated opinion than I can.
Thank you all for your replies to my inquiries.  I love the forums as it provides a very diverse environment and opinions. I am learning a lot on my new tube endeavor. Thanks for enlightening me on my "plate" question. Thanks for your suggestions.  
For a 40 year SS veteran this is a big change. All my SS experiences have evolved from the early days of getting the best, in my opinion, to top of the line in the later days. I am satisfied with what I have. Now, after hearing a tube sound, I can honestly say I had no idea of what I was missing and regret the amounts of money spent on improving my SS environment.  I find I no longer listen to my SS system and favor the tube. Just last night I realized I had been immersed into the sound for 6 hours and time stood still. Did not realize it was 11PM before I retired to bed. It's a good thing I'm retired and have that time on my hands. I am truly impressed with that "tube" sound I always heard of. What a great way to enjoy my golden years.

I have a Rogue Pharaoh. Great sounding unit. Has a very good Phono stage and headphone amp and an outstanding line level section. The stock tubes that come with the Pharaoh are JJ  12au7 tubes. I experimented with some 50 to 60 year old Mullard 12au7's, NOS. This, in my opinion, took an already good sounding amp to a much better one. The sound became more holographic. Air and space around instruments and voices became much more natural. The soundstage expanded in all directions. Pair the NOS tubes along with a premium power cord, doesn't have to be an expensive one, and you will be set. Depending on what you have in your system, you can experiment with Telefunken and Amperex tubes also. They can do similar things to the sound like the Mullards, The best thing to do is experiment.
Cheers,
Tim
Mr m, thank you for your input. It's good to hear you are also satisfied with the Pharaoh. Since I had no knowledge of tube equipment and reading up I decided that it was my best choice for entering this realm. I happen to very much agree with you. Out of the box I was impressed with the unit. Of course I have nothing to compare it to. I think I don't need to compare any longer. Someone else mentioned Mullard also. I'll give that a try when able. The Pharaoh is used with B&W 803D2, Musical Fidelity A3CD, vintage 1976 Sony PS4300 TT. I'm streaming audio thru an Oppo 103 using aux input. I'm also using the HT bypass where I can use my SS preamp for comparison. I will be removing this connection as there is no comparison between the tube pre and the SS lexicon pre. My SS system has been permanently assigned to HT duty only. 
Again thank you for your input and suggestions.