How much does price usually equate to good tone when it comes to buying brand new vacuum tubes?

[SoulFetish]

That's how I think of tone. My reckoning is that Jeff Beck playing through an amp fitted with what anyone here would consider to be the worst tubes would make that amp sound much better than anyone here playing through the same amp fitted with what they consider to be the best tubes.

With all do respect to Mr. Beck and you, Mr. Bailey, I call bullsh*t. I would take the pepsi challenge against becks tone using any tubes available. I think I can get as good a tone as he does.
... just sayin'

[The Dude]

For me it come down to reliability, reliability and most important of all, reliability,

As Jazz hinted, the tolerances are are so wide that I think you can pick a good sounding tube (i.e one you personally like) from any of the manufacturer. The other side of that coin is that next time you buy the exact same part number and the same manufacturer, it probably will not sound alike.

^^^^^^ THAT! Reliability is #1 for me. Tone is subjective anyway. It would be silly to generalize that a certain tube sounds better than another. So many other things come into play. The circuit has lots to do with it. The same tube doesn't sound the same in a different circuit. What kind of music is it- primarily clean jazz, metal, etc.? How does the player play? Does he mute strings or strum openly? Single coils or humbuckers? You may now toss the sacks of gunpowder into the fire.

[SoulFetish]

For us, as a repair shop that warranties our parts and service, it's the same as Nick and The Dude say. In fact, my boss doesn't even entertain questions about, or requests for opinions on what they "sound" like. He won't even admit to knowing how to play music at all. Even I, as the Chief Officer of Unsolicited Opinions in our company, have learned that there is great freedom in this approach for us.