NOS Tubes - Ecstasy or Agony

Two of the most satisfying changes to my system are attributable to NOS tubes.   The first was a NOS Mullard in the power supply of a Modwright 36.5 linestage. My jaw dropped.  The second was trying NOS Sylvania and Ken Rad 6Sn7's in a VAC 200 IQ power amp.  The Sylvania were amazingly transparent. The Ken Rad's were full bodied, clear, wide bandwidth and my final choice.

What I like about this is that dramatic changes are available for a few hundred dollars, you can deep dive into researching the subject, you can gain access to some of the best ever made, and what you get probably won't depreciate. It lets you be a hands-on hobbyist again as audio increasingly moves to streaming (for good reasons) with locked-box appliances.  Yeah, there's some current obsession with getting digital data to the DAC, but whether real or imagined, that's complete solvable beyond further improvement, but I digress. 

Shout out to Brent, Vintage Tube, and catluck.

I have purchased several singles and matched pairs of NOS from Upscale Audio. All have been just as advertised and no DOA's. I personally don't believe there are many, if any suppliers who do the kind of comprehensive testing that Upscale does on the tubes they sell. And no, I am not a paid spokesperson, just a very satisfied customer.

NOS...."New Old Stock", only 3 weeks old since demand has fallen off of late....

"Hey, Lorraine? These boxes aren’t ’aged’ enough to be ’believable’. Can you smudge them up a bit more?"

Does anyone truly believe there are stashes of old tubes out there Still?

If so....I've got some lake bottom property next to the Brooklyn Bridge to put up an 'old condo' on.....

asvjerry1
All you have to do is a little searching. Here is a recent auction on ebay. Scroll down so you can see the actual sale of 10,000 to 12,000 tubes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-Vintage-Vacuum-Tubes-Approximately-10000-to-12000-Radio-amp-Televisi...

I think NOS tubes are an area where who you're dealing with matters more than anything.  

My experience has been that tubes matter a lot more in a preamp than an amp.  I've had tubes fail in my amps, but I've never experienced a sound quality issue related to a tube in any of my amps.

On the other hand, my Modwright LS100 which also uses 6SN7 tubes will not only reveal the characteristics of the sound quality of any given tube, but also noise and/or microphonics.  I would say that probably 30% of the tubes I've purchased, including some highly touted new ones, have been microphonic or became microphonic after a short period of time or had unacceptable noise issues.

Which goes back to my initial point.  Brent Jessee has been my go-to guy.  For a few bucks extra he will guarantee his tubes (for 2 years I think?).  Whenever I've experienced an issue, he's been great about getting me a replacement, or if he doesn't have one, recommending something different.  I've also had good experiences with the ebay sellers I've bought from, but I make sure that they have 100% feedback and a lot of it. 

I had some issues with a pair of tubes recently and the seller tried a few in his preamp and sent me four to try and told me to keep the two that worked best.  I've had other good experiences with ebay sellers helping me make sure I got a good tube(s) that would work well in my preamp.

As far as buying a pair of NOS tubes that don't exactly match as far as their markings, that is not unusual, at least in my experience, nor does it concern me.  The same tube may have been sold under different brand names.  As long as the tubes themselves are the same and tested and matched, it makes no difference to me.