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Make no mistake. There were tubes MFG'd back in the day that absolutely ARE superior in every way (including tone) than anything MFG'd today. That isn't to say that there aren't any good tubes being made today, there are. But you really need to pay extra or buy and weed yourself to get performance. Your comment about less $$$ for sorting is spot on. There are sellers that do the sorting and charge a premium... It's usually worth it. And the sound difference??? Well, it's hard to quantify. When every thing is just right you REALLY know it. And NOS (select brand, year, make) are the best you can do. But I can't afford the stuff that's become so expensive and I design with currently MFG'd tubes for this reason. I might quantify the difference as 5 to 10%. That can be a huge amount in the first preamp slot. The signal of which is often amplified some thousands of times. But for every other preamp tube I use currently MFG'd tubes. The Sovtek 12ax7LPS would be just great if it wasn't prone to microphonics. And it's all QC. Back in the day there were plenty of long plate tubes made that didn't squeal. But tone wise the LPS is just great and I do use it for most everything but the first position.
JM2C
JM2C
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