When were the best tube amps made?

The best are made right now.

There seems to be a consensus here: Today is the era of best tube amplification. And: some of he best stuff comes from artisan electronic designers. I just took delivery of a Supratek Grange phono-/pre-amp. I have not yet hooked it up because I am building a new vibration-attenuated instrument rack, and the concrete inside the tubes takes forever to cure. But the enthusiastic testimonials from Supratek users over the years had me pay attention. Communicating with the designer, Mick Maloney from New South Wales was free education of another level. This is an important point: today’s designers have so much more information at their hands compared to previous generations, that one can find new approaches to solving very basic problems such as SET linearity, source impedance matching, forsaking SUTs, etc. almost every year. I am currently a user of the "legendary" Sunvalley EQ1616D phono-pre, sporting a magnificent ELROG 274B rectifier tube: this was my first foray into tube territory, and I never looked back since. It will be for sale pretty soon, I guess ...

@whart   I was a purist so my SP10 is the original.

It was said the microphony could be reduced by placing the amp between heavy steel or stone blocks but I have never tried.  I still listen to it occasionally today in my second system; Zarathustra TT (Simon Yorke S2, very rare), Zeta, Ortofon Anna, into the Krell KSA50 and Audiostatic ES200.  Very vintage, apart from the Anna.  I must say I don't hear microphony in the AR.

Most recognise SP10 as a classic and it still commands prices to match; was $4000 in the early 80s and nearly $3000 today.

McIntosh MC 30s. Ethereal sounding! Like nothing else. 

When people say that today's amplifiers are better, or vice versa, have they really heard a broad enough sampling of both to make that claim?  Have they really heard the best of vintage amplifiers--such as Western Electric 59A (252 pushpull), 91A (300B single-ended), 86 (pushpull 300B), Marantz 9, etc.?  I heard a demonstration where a very good current model Audio Note Kageki (parallel single-ended 2a3) was compared to the 59A playing Audio Note AN-E speakers.  The Kageki sounded wonderful until the 59A stepped into its place--the comparison was so startling that it made the Kageki sound like it was broken.  The Kageki is now almost a six figure amp and it does not come close to the 59A playing speakers that should be friendly to Audio Note amps.  I really like the sound of the Kageki (I own a pair), but the 59A is so much better--more vivid and alive, more rich and harmonically saturated, and still relaxed sounding (not edgy).  The 59A probably costs twice as much as the Kageki these days, but for someone who can afford it (not me), it would be the end-game amp.