Driver Tubes 6922

@tonydennison  Did Brent say  whether the tubes he sells as new are new, to the best of his knowledge, or test new and look pretty good?

     I've purchased at least 9 NOS matched pair of Siemens, E88CC iterations, over the past 20+ years, from Argentina, Germany (the most), Australia and off eBay. 

     None, in the last 10 years.  

     Mostly: early 60's, grey shields.   Actually: all but 1 pair each of early 70's, silver shield, CCa and E188CCs, which were sold because they seemed a bit too strident, in my system.

     My CDP takes 3 pair and I recently swapped out a sextet of the CCa's (3 different early sixties versions/getters) for 1 pair each of CCa, E88CC and E188CCs, just to see if there was any difference in presentation. 

      I was happy to find everything as excellent and quiet as with the all CCa set.

      I've stuck with Siemens as my go-to valves, because I found the 12AX7s, my previous CD drive and DACs* took, gave me exactly what I preferred, far as presentation (with nary a hiccup/failure), for quite a few years.

                                               Great stuff!

                  * (California Audio Labs Delta, Sigma and then Alpha)

@tomcy6 

They are not new.

OP, Out of curiosity, how old must a tube be before it becomes a NOS tube. I have a stash of old St Petersburg Svetlana (now SED) power tubes which have been out of production for some time. Are they NOS? They sure are good!

FWIW, re NOS v current production 6922/6dj8s after trying/comparing them in a tubed headphone amp, I ended up with JJ's which were very quiet (super important in headphones, you know) and tonally slightly warm. Best of all they are cheap(er) than most other current and NOS tubes. Fairly reliable, I've yet to have one fail. 

@newbee 

I am no expert but I would consider tubes made prior to 1970 and never left the box to be NOS. ive never thought JJ to be very good. I giess it comes down to synergy.