***Is It Me Or Have Todays Modern Tubes Gotten REALLY REALLY Good***


About 3 years ago it was the Quad VA-One EL-84 amp that won my ears & heart.Almost 3 years I ran that amp night and day and never felt the urge to roll any of the tubes,which I believe were E.H...A user interface problem forced it’s sale and now it is the magical Cayin CS-55a with factory KT88’s,AU7 & AX7 small signal tubes..Once again I find absolutely no reason to start rolling tubes.Maybe,maaayyybbbeee I could squeeze a drop more liquidity outta the upper mids and possibly a hint more shimmer on top but at what expense?I hate gambling.Anyone else noting the quality of today’s new issue tubes?
freediver
When you see those old videos of the Mullard production - large factories cranking out vast quantities of tubes using almost steampunk technology- it’s kind of amazing. The scale of production was considerable and the tooling was fresh, I gather some of the materials are now unobtanium, or at least not so easy to use in an age when worker health and safety is highly regulated as it now is in the EU and the States. (I think that’s a reason why most plastics are made abroad these days).
I still haven’t found a better 12ax7 for my amp than an old Telefunken, but have not tried the Psvane black tube. The current production Sovtek sounds lifeless in my amps in my system- Vlad supplies them with new tube sets presumably because it’s reliable and supplying more exotic, older tubes would be time and cost prohibitive.
I roll rectifiers in my phono stage power supply and the best sounding ones have been old ones. The new tube that came with the unit was not good sounding. (That the rectifier makes such a difference in sonics is fascinating since it isn’t in the audio path).
I thought I had an issue with my line stage tubes- from the get go, I had DR Reflectors- I grabbed a matched quad of the E-H variant (they are now all made in the same factory) and the system sounded drier, less resolving, less harmonic decay and less information overall. I sourced another quad of DR Reflectors and the difference was immediately apparent. The mojo was back.
I think some of the differences in results are probably due to the circuit and how the tube is used. One person on another forum said they didn’t think the DR old stock was better in an ARC component. I’m using them in something else..
The original GEC KT 66 is a dramatically better sounding tube in my little Quad IIs. The amp was built for those and other tubes I’ve used in those amps just don’t sound the same.
I would much love that brand new tubes sounded better or at least as good as these old tubes. The 6H30 is a PITA since there are very few options. As far as I know, most NOS Tele small tubes are ’pulls’ or of uncertain provenance that test ’as new’- I’m not sure most vendors can say more unless they found some master carton of them-- and for these more commonly used audio tubes, the prices keep going up as the supply dwindles.
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That does not match my experience with an Audio Research LS2B MKII Pre.  First owner here and about 25 years old.  I've auditioned newer stuff from time to time but it sends them packing. Came from AR with a 6DJ8...  tried bunches of them from Bugle Boys to Valvos, Telefunken and such and then moved to CCa6922 's with many tested and none as good as the Siemens and Halske grey plate from late 50's and early 60's.  Had pinched waist 1959 Valvo Cca 6922's that were magnificent but the issue with all classic tubes...  forget the 5,000 or 10,000 hours nonsense...... if you get a couple hundred hours of prime performance before the bass starts deteriorating or the tube gets strident you are lucky. ... and I say that after rolling this unit for almost all of it's 25 years.  Using 6N23P Volshad Rocket circa 1977, silver version and it's really, really good.  As with the best Siemens and Valvos it's not listening to music, it's going to a performance.
Nice amp , and yes modern tubes are good . However , I dare you to roll in 4 NOS  Telefunken signal tubes and say it isn’t an improvement. But everyone knows it’s subjective . I must be stupid as I have more invested in tubes , than my amp . But it’s been fun . Hi “ My name is Mike, Im a Tube Addict “ . With all the NOS stuff I have , I absolutely love the Tungsol KT 120’s . And I hope I never run out of Svetlana Winged “ C “ KT 88’s . I’ll keep coming back 😎
For 6SN7 tubes for my preamp and amp, I am really quite happy with the Shuguang Treasure CV181-Z and CV181-T tubes. They might not be quite as good as the very best NOS war time tubes, but they are more consistent, less expensive, and easier to get.

For KT88 power tubes, I like the Shuguang Treasure KT88-Z and KT88-T tubes better than any of the Russian tubes out there. I don’t even consider NOS for these tubes as I am not going to spend the money for the old Genalex tubes.

For, 6922 tubes, I could not find a new production tube that sounded good. So I invested in late 50’s and early 60’s Siemens and Telefunken NOS tubes. In the end, I used an adapter with Western Electric 396A/2C51 tubes. These were the best tubes I ever heard in 6922 applications. Russian Reflektor 6NP3-E tubes with the same adapter are really good too. Better than the much more expensive 6922 tubes.
I really like the Genelex Gold Lion
reissues for power tubes. Also, the Mullard
 reissue for small signal tubes.