I can't answer for Frogman but I certainly think for the most part that a warm tube sounds warm where ever they are with a few exceptions. there is no doubt though, that certain tubes just don't work in all circuits. For me as a rule I tend to like 5751s in most situations. I did try 5751s in the output section of a Jolida CD player and it simply did not function. The sound was dreadful enough to make me think the tube had failed but it hadn't. The circuit for some reason was intolerant. Another exception was a highly modded ARC SP-6B which didn't change it's tone no matter what I put in it. It was brutally frustrating and a terrible combination with my speakers.
There are cases where the lower mu doesn't seem to work either. I have some real old unmodded vintage integrateds that used 12AX7s in the preamp section and frankly need the extra umph. A couple of them came loaded with Teles before tube rape was common. Curiuosly they respond quite well to current production in many instances where I have replaced the old tubes. The old tubes I then put into new amps and many sound fine go figure!
There are cases where the lower mu doesn't seem to work either. I have some real old unmodded vintage integrateds that used 12AX7s in the preamp section and frankly need the extra umph. A couple of them came loaded with Teles before tube rape was common. Curiuosly they respond quite well to current production in many instances where I have replaced the old tubes. The old tubes I then put into new amps and many sound fine go figure!