Which brand of 45 tubes do you use?

Larry,   Now that you mention it, It's very possible that some of (or maybe all) the NOS tubes I bought aren't but just tested within new specs. They came in factory boxes with what appears to be period correct wrapping. I was told they were NOS. Who knows. Doesn't really matter, they sound great.

The EML 2A3 tubes I have are solid plates. I never tried the Mesh plate type. Did you prefer one over the other?

I liked the meshplate even though it was a bit over the top.  I liked the wide open soundstage, but, if someone said the tube sounded "phasey," I wouldn't disagree.  I used it in a parallel single-ended amp (Audio Note Kageki) and it had a reasonable life span, although not the kind of life that vintage 2a3s seem to have if run conservatively.

Just a point that may be of interest. Philco never made a tube but they did rebranding. So when br mentions Philcos these tubes were most likely made by Sylvania.

Our company has multiple matched pairs of old stock 45s and one of the owners has over 20 years experience selling old stock vacuum tubes.

National Union is one of our more popular brands. A customer in the know described them as a very nice cross between a Tung Sol and a RCA. FYI.

Larry,  Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I like a wide open soundstage, "phasey" not so much. I don't know if you can answer this but even a hunch will help. Is the "phasey" sound characteristic of mesh plate EML tubes or could something else be at play? 

I am looking into trying OTL amps as well. I have never heard our new speakers powered by OTLs. Could be a nice pairing.

audition_audio, I might be interested in adding another pair of NOS 45s to my stash. Can you share or PM contact info for your company? Thanks.

I don't know if any particular sound I heard is characteristic of meshplates, but, the sound of EML's solid plate 2a3 is much more like other 2a3's--very tight, dynamic, slightly lean and punchy sounding.  I own very dynamic sounding speakers so I didn't mind the less tight sound of the meshplate tube and I did like that wash of sound that evelopes the listener that I got with the meshplates.  I used the description "phasey" because the sound is a littlbe bit like when speakers are out of phase, but, instrument locations remain solid and correctly placed; in other words, it is a rough description.  As I said before, I like the meshplate tube in my Kageki amp.

I like very much the sound of several OTL amps I've heard.  The immediacy, and liveliness of good OTL's are something everyone should at least experience.  Speakers come alive with OTL's.  Like any type of amps, there are considerable variations in the sound, from different choice of tubes, components, design, voicing, etc.  Unfortunately, there are not that many commercial choices out there.  The amps I particularly like are custom-made ones that utilize a television sweep tube.