Best Tubes on Market today?

ei001h
I also recommend Andy from vintage tube Services Inc.. I've been buying from him for years never had a problem with tubes.
As someone else suggested I would get rid of the noise in the amplifier before changing tubes.
I only have experience with Siemens 12Au7s bought from upscale audio. I use them in my phono preamplifier and also in my Zesto bia120 amplifier.  They are similar sounding to Telefunkens. They tend to give you more detail than other tubes in the same class.  


 

If I was trying to solve a noise problem in my amp that I thought was coming from the tubes, I would not think for a minute that I should run out and spend hundreds/thousands of dollars on vintage tubes to solve the problem. I would first want to swap the tubes with another set of known "good" tubes just to see if that altered the problem in some way.

There is no reason not to buy a new set of tubes at reasonable prices to test this hypothesis. Upscale Audio and a number of other established sellers have plenty of quality tubes that will sound excellent and allow you to diagnose this issue without spending excessive amounts of money on a guess.
And I totally agree with all the posts that warn of buying tubes on ebay. That is nothing short of Russian roulette. That is NOT the place to go to solve this problem.

" I've been running 845 amps in my system for nearly 20 years, some noise is inherent to these amps "
I have a Line Magnetic 518iA 845 tube integrated, it makes zero noise

  I retubed my C2300 and MR-71 with NOS Telefunkun tubes. All tubes preceded 1970. I even bought one made in November, 1954. All NOS tubes made a great, audible difference in my system. And also quite a hole in my pocketbook!

ei001h- Far as, "best tubes on market"; the best are all NOS, from reputable dealers(as mentioned above). Since you asked about, "best’ for you; that depends on your taste in reproduction. It’s been my experience, that many like a warm, sweet, what some call, "tubey" sound. If that appeals to you, stick with British(ie: Mullard or Brimar) If a cleaner, more detailed presentation attracts you; go with German tubes(ie:Teles or Siemens). Somewhere in the middle, are Amperex/Bugle Boy, Pope and Phillips(Holland). NOS American tubes can go either way. The previous comments are focused on nine-pin Miniatures. I’ll include a list/comparison survey, which deals with the 6SN7 family. I’ve found the first author’s comments/impressions quite accurate (all my personal favorites are bottom-gettered) . With the prices that NOS output tubes are now commanding; current production is very attractive. No experience here, regarding SET output valves. http://www.dehavillandhifi.com/6sn7_vt.htm and: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-reference-6sn7-thread.117677/