Newb Tube question

AAAAAHHH Tubes :-) They are like little bottles of electronic wonder and joy. However, being new to tubes in 2020 is to embrace the term "made in Europe or Asia" Of course anyone with an old warehouse and a tube tester is now on the tube bandwagon and is a expert. My point is that there are many crappy pedestrian sounding brand new tubes out there so it pays to do as much research as you can by yourself and take the time to learn why tubes work and what they do. I agree with lewm that tube rolling is better with better sounding gear, so dont worry about buying a $180 tube to put in a $150-$300 unit. Stock tubes are fine with these products. Where Andy At Vintage tubes comes in is when you have a special sounding unit and your looking for "real new old stock tubes from the 50's 60's 70's" to really bring out the best. That is special.

Matt M

@lewm 

First, in my experience mediocre sounding gear does not become wonderful sounding gear via tube rolling.

Beware, the corollary is also true - a bad tube can make a great amp sound average. 


  

Given your system I would go with RCA or Mullard NOS. Telefunken and Siemens are said by many to be better but possibly out of your price range. I don't know your phono stage but if it has 2 or more tubes be sure to get matched pairs. 

First, you need to decide what is lacking in your music and how you want to change it. For example, if you want more detail or more extension in the bass, or if you want a warmer presentation, you can select tubes with the appropriate characteristics or timbre.

 

I have a ProJect Tube Box DS2 which came with JJ ECC 803 tubes. Sounds quite decent with stock tubes. Its construction is different from your Tube Box S2 - the tubes are sunk inside, and on order to replace them with NOS tubes, I would have to open the top cover, remove the stock tubes together with heat dampers glued to them and install vintage tubes. I could not cope with this simple task as I could find a suitable tool.
Re long vs short plates: It is rumored that tubes with long plates (such as Mullard tubes) have higher value and sound better, but I would say it depends on the application.