Personally, I'm not interested in spending money on NOS. Seems like a huge crap shoot with little predictability of results for money spent. Especially in my case with such high shipping costs.
New production is more repeatable and the manufacturers are trying to build brand reputation. I feel I can trust other users' feedback somewhat more. And yes, new tubes are not the same as the originals. I don't think too much of "passed down" marketing halos either. I'll let the new tubes' reputations stand on their own. I suspect that current manufacturers do at least TRY to deliver on the halo of the Golden Age tubes' reputations. Whether they can do so is another question I'm not too worried about.
As to FlaCharlie's recommendation of reconnecting my system - I'll pass. This is how I want my system configured so performance in this configuration is my criterion.
I do have a set of new TungSol 6SN7s in the mail for the power amp's driver stage. These are not Gold Pin and also replace the OEM Chinese tubes. Also have a quad of TungSol EL34s in the same delivery.
BTW, plugged in a new quad of EH 6CA7s last night as a swap for the EH KT90s. So far, so good.
I've still to order 6550s and new, non-Chinese KT88s. That should give me a complete rotation of all the power tube variants the Willsenton R8 will support. Not every make but every model.
In a separate thread on rolling the front end 6SL7/6SN7s, the consensus seemed to be that I shouldn't expect much difference from new production or even NOS so I think I'll rest with the new TungSol signal tubes, My limited experience so far, in the current configuration, supports that consensus opinion.
Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that the new production Tung Sol 6SL7, or any other new production tube, isn't a decent tube.
But if I could buy a NOS Tung Sol for the same price I'd go with the NOS. And I certainly wouldn't pay twice the price for a tube that has gold plated pins, regardless of when it was made.
If the current manufacturers really wanted to
"build brand reputation" they wouldn't spend (likely considerable) money buying the rights to a famous brand name from the past. Instead of legitimately building the reputation of their own brand over time they are taking a shortcut, riding the coattails of another brand, trying to take advantage of the reputation of the original company.
The sad thing is that many buyers think they are the same.
Were those sold to you as a "matched pair"? The section to section readings of the one on the left are not particularly close. As far as consistency and repeatability goes, I took a look at the test results of several 6SL7s and 12SL7s I have (some NOS, some used) and, with the exception of a couple well used ones, the sections were all not only closer than that but stronger as well. Sure, tester differences come into play, but still.
IMO, tube rolling is almost always
"a huge crap shoot with little predictability of results for money spent" regardless of whether you buy NOS or new production.
The thing about tube reviews is that they are not only system dependent but also based on the subjective tastes, and previous experience, of the reviewer. Now, you might take it more seriously if the reviewer uses exactly the same equipment that you do. But the chances of that are slim.
I don't get into claiming that a particular brand / version of tube sounds a certain way. If a tube has lots of positive reviews, great. But I take comments about specifics with a huge grain of salt.
When I read reviews of new production tubes I usually come away with the impression that a high percentage of the reviewers have very little experience with tubes in general. And, in addition, many of them are using the tubes in guitar amps so their comments are of questionable utility. The majority have probably never heard a comparable NOS tube.
Now, I admit that my experience with new production tubes is very limited so I would never say they don't sound good. But, I almost never see reports of NOS tubes developing problems soon after they are put into use. I have, on numerous occasions, seen such comments about new production - especially with rectifiers and output tubes, which are under more stress than small signal tubes.
Lots of dedicated tube rollers write glowing reviews of a particular tube. But the nature of the beast is that they are never satisfied. A few months (weeks? days? hours?? minutes even??) later those wonderful tubes are often in a drawer with a pile of other$ and they're trying out the next "holy grail" tube they've discovered. At least, if you don't like a highly regarded old production tube you can sell it and probably recoup most of your money. Its market value will likely go up over time, just as it has with most vintage gear.
When shopping for tubes it's always a good idea to check the prices of the big dealers, like the one I linked. I've found plenty of good deals on eBay too. As always, if you take your time and shop around you'll get a better idea of what's reasonable and what's crazy. Nothing wrong with strong testing used tubes, either.
There are a lot of "boutique" dealers out there whose prices are ridiculous. They are marketing geniuses though, just read the poetic descriptions of the tubes they offer. Funny how the "best sounding" and most exotic brands / versions just happen to be whatever they have in stock at the time. The more hype, the less chance that you're going to get a reasonable deal. IMO.
Of course, there are a lot of people who are convinced that if something is more expensive it must be better. So it's not surprising that there are always some sellers whose business model is based on taking advantage of that psychological factor.
There's one eBay seller, whose moniker I won't mention, who regularly lists NOS tubes at prices that are 3x to 6x higher than all the other listings for exactly the same tubes. Apparently, there are enough suckers out there for them to prosper. I've also seen gear that goes unsold be re-listed several times with no buyers. Then, instead of lowering the price, the seller raises the price, and the gear sells. It never ceases to amaze me.
My comment on re-connecting your system is simply that, if you want to compare the sound of different tubes, you won't be able to tell much unless the rest of the system is unchanged and the only difference is the tubes.
