Doesn't Manley talk down tube rolling? IIRC, when I was reading some of their stuff a few years back, they made a big deal about how they specially select the tubes for the amps.
Besides, I'd run it as is for a while to get a baseline for what you have before you start in on it, and give it a chance to grow on you.
FWIW, I had an AK loaner here a few years back and it was extremely sweet!! Congrats!!
Here's some FAQs from the always entertaining EveAnna...
FAQ #16a. I need to retube my Manley amplifier. Do you sell tubes?
Sorry. Just kidding. Yes, of course we do. We have about 100,000 tubes in stock of the several major types we use.
FAQ #16b. Why should I buy tubes from you?
We are only as good as our worst tube. We are very selective about which tubes we use in Manley products and we have several different testing and burn-in jigs to test for certain parameters which will be most important for that tube in a given circuit. We will test and select a tube set for you that will be optimized for your Manley piece of gear and in most cases, your tube set will actually be tested in another one of what you have.
FAQ #16c. Are tubes expensive?
Not especially. Although I might have made a killing in the stock market had I invested the money I instead put into finding and stocking these large quantities of tubes ten years ago when the USA military were dumping their stocks of NOS JAN vacuum tubes. Seriously, there is the stocking cost to consider in the cost we must charge, development charge of the computerized test jigs we built, then more importantly the time it takes one of our guys to run a little tube through its qualification procedures. Remember, a given tube cannot be improved during testing. It is the way it is, and one hopes it stays that way. It can only be selected, and in selecting that tube that will work really well for your piece of gear, we probably had to throw away several. In some cases we might have had to go through 30 tubes to find the quietest one, or the one with the lowest microphonics, or the one with the best internal matching, depending on what parameters are important for that circuit. That is all factored into the cost somewhat, but no, overall, we don't charge enough for replacement tubes.
FAQ #16d. NOS? JAN? What does that mean?
New Old Stock. Joint Army Navy. Yes our military used to use vacuum tubes. As long as the glass doesn't break, tubes are impervious to a nuclear explosion's electromagnetic pulse unlike little silicon devices whose little junctions would go poof! My general thoughts on NOS are I see people paying stupid money on eBay for Telefunken this or NOS that and it's all up to pure luck if that tube you pay $75 for will be a pull, used, half dead, work at all, noisy, a fake, or better performing than what we installed brand new in your unit. We do use a lot of NOS tubes here. We have loads of experience with the types/brands/lots we use and we have thousands more of them in stock. We chose each of these lots based not only on being able to get enough quantity to sustain production for many many years, but of course more importantly because we get a good yield out of them and these types/brands work exceptionally well in our circuits. Not all tubes are created equal. You can get a lot of a thousand pieces of 1960's Phillips 12AT7's that are absolute trash. Brand new Ei's from Yugoslavia will whoop 'em performance-wise and sonically. Or some mid-80's 6072A's that we already rejected here and sold off as salvage stock! That pair of (wow!) Telefunken's you bought on eBay for $150 might be cleaned up pulls. Or they might be re-painted Ei factory tubes.... you never know. If you are dealing with a known reputable source of NOS tubes, such as Kevin Deal at Upscale Audio, you'll be in good shape. I will endorse him as a high quality and trustworthy seller of NOS tubes. I will additionally endorse him as one of my very dearest friends. He has some very special rare tubes and he is a special rare person of the highest caliber and integrity in this industry. However, when you buy a replacement tube from Manley Labs, you are buying a new or New-Old-Stock tube that was *specifically* selected for optimum total performance in YOUR Manley piece o' gear. Each and every one. So weigh that out in your tube purchasing decision.
FAQ #16d (part deux). I didn't read anything you wrote above as I am not prone to reading anything or doing research on my own so I want you to advise me if the ECC3.14149 and the EL69-666 tubes I just bought on eBay will work in my Manley Toob-o-Rific?
I have no personal extensive experience with any other tubes other than what we keep in stock and use in our gear and since I haven't personally tested those tubes you hold in your hand I cannot advise you on them. You are on your own. If you have enough money to spend on unknown tubes then you have enough money to send the Toob-o-Rific in for repair if your new fancy toobs cause it to blow up. Or maybe they will work great. Probably the more money you spent on them, the better you will think they work. Good luck and if you need more personal affirmations, please read the answer to FAQ #4a again and again.
FAQ #16d (part trois) In Dick Olsher's seminal Stingray review, he recommends changing all the tubes. What do you think about using the so-and-so EL84's and the blah-blah-blah 12AT7's? What other 6414's can I buy?
That review was written a looooong time ago, specifically when there was a political embargo on for products of Yugoslav origin, such as the Ei 12AT7 and Ei EL84/6BQ5. Now there's not, but the factory is again in a funky state and we're our of stock once again on the Ei tubes. Rats. Next best are the Russian ones we are using. All the 6414 types we have ever run across are as good as the next type/brand. What really matters is that we selected ones that had good triode-to-triode matching for best performance as the phase splitter. Whatever you buy off the shelf somewhere will have not gone through that test. We ship the Stingray with:
Output Tubes: 8 x EL84 Ships with Russian EL84M (We are out of Ei 6BQ5.)
Driver Tubes: 2 x 6414 Ships with GE or RAYTHEON JAN NOS USA or 6414W
Input Tubes: 2 x 12AT7EH Ships with: 12AT7EH large plate Electro-Harmonix Russian
Those are the tubes that we can score large quantities of to sustain reliable and consistent production that we think sound best in the Stingray. Plus all the tubes we install are matched, batched and fully selected based on numerous and specific parameters specifically for best performance in your specific amplifier. Feel free to go spend bunches of more bucks on some other tubes, new, pulls, NOS, or otherwise (how do you know what you really are getting?) that were not matched batched and selected for your amplifier. Just don't ask us for personal affirmations regarding your decision. Keep reading everything in this FAQ#16 over and over. Have at it, but without our blessings or help. You iz on yer own! Because you guys obviously know more than we do about our own products, right?