If you have a Steelhead-

Or living hell. But you can always go back to living heaven.
Any tube change will have different sonic outcome even same brand, same year, same week or day, same type.
Tubes are so.

G

Wonderful musical system.Enjoy!

Thanks to all, particularly EBM-so gracious!
I believe the Matsushita 7DJ8 is simply a nicer tube than those spec'd by Manley which were JAN Philips 6922's. Before buying a brand new ARC Ref 6 from a local AD I had an Audioprism Mantissa preamp for over 12 years and did a ton of tube rolling with it. In my experience the JAN is a polite solid 6922, an all-rounder and a good choice by Manley. In my system the 7DJ8 provides a bump up. Greater air, extension, and palpable grip. Not warmer per se but more meat on the bones.

Love your post! One has to remember manufacturers use tubes that will be reliable in the long term, not so much for sound quality. No owner of tube equipment wants early or unexpected tube failures but these can and do exist and if it’s under warranty, they want readily available tubes. 
Most tube equipment manufacturers encourage tube rolling but at the customers expense for good reason.

Have fun!

The 7044s, or any of the several congeners of the 7044, in the Steelhead are not "rectifiers", first because 7044s are dual triodes, not rectifiers, and then because they serve as White Cathode Followers in the Steelhead, which is just a fancy cathode follower. Cathode followers convert voltage to current while dramatically reducing output impedance and adding no gain to the signal. (Which is why it makes little sense to sub the stock tubes with very expensive equivalents.) The low output impedance of the cathode follower then makes it possible to drive either the volume control in the Steelhead, if it is being used as a full function preamplifier, or the outboard linestage, if the Steelhead is used as a phono only stage. In the case where you are using it as a full function preamplifier, there is a cathode follower that drives the volume control and then a second identical cathode follower that is driven by the volume control and outputs to the amplifier. So, the output stage sequence is: CF - (coupling capacitor) - volume control - CF - (coupling capacitor) - amplifier. That’s why, if memory serves, there are two 7044/6922s per channel, one for each White CF.

The 7DJ8 is by all accounts a nice tube, but bear in mind that it is designed for a 7V filament supply, not the 6.3V supply that is standard for filaments of most dual triodes and which is present in the Steelhead. Fortunately, it works on 6.3V, apparently.

For the single amplification tube per channel in my Steelhead, I substituted some Siemens CCa, happily, but I won’t say it’s a night and day difference from OEM tubes. I made some changes to the output section I described above, in terms of the output coupling capacitors, that made a much bigger improvement in SQ. Note that the signal must flow through two coupling capacitors on its way out to the amplifier, if you use the Steelhead as a preamplifier.