Tube for aesthetix pandora / romulus

Jim at Aesthetix uses the best easily obtainable tubes and that is Russian. They however are not the best sounding. If you want a more natural sound you have to tube roll. In my system I like Mullard's and Amperex.

The tubes I've settled on are Mullard 12ax7 goal posts, either halo or square getter. These are from the late 50's.
And Telefunken E88CC (6922). If you can find Telefunken E188CC they might be even better.

I am going to try Amperex Holland D-foil getter 12ax7 soon as an experiment.

PS: I did not like the Telefunken 12ax7 or the USA Amperex 7308. These comments only apply to Aesthetix as these tubes could be ideal in other applications.

04-04-15: Ctsooner
I have been a tube owner for years and years and have gone with tubes from the manufacturer every time. They match them and know what sounds best. Often they will have a signature line (Jim White knows what tubes he feels are best and puts them in his sig series). I've heard people put different tubes in my gear or other gear and it may change the sound a bit, but a few times I felt it hurt the sound. If you decide to tube roll, I wish you luck as it will cost you a lot and you may or may not even like what it does. JMHO and there will be at least ten others who will say I am wrong,

IMHO, DEAD wrong!

Companies realize 99.99999...% of customers will roll so they don't bother using rare NOS for stock. Plus they probably don't have enough inventory to support a product line. Of course there are exceptions such as Shindo ...

I agree rolling tubes can get expensive this is a hobby and for me, it's part of the enjoyment.

Manufacturers HAVE to use reliable tubes that are available in quantity, most likely current production models. These are rarely the optimum tubes for the application, but the best ones are likely to be (1) not available in quantity and/or (2) too pricy to be a practical choice. This simply makes sense and is not a criticism of the manufacturer.

Does anyone know what specific tubes Aesthetix supplies with their Signature models?

Aesthetix uses the same tubes whether its a standard, signature, or eclipse model. In my Pandora dac I love the Mullard 10M gold pin 12AX7 and 6922. The 10M are rated for 10.000 hours and are more open sounding than the standard Mullard UK tubes. You will pay a premium for these and they are very hard to find.