NOS Premium Tubes

The selection of tubes for any tube based amplifier will materially influence the “sound” of the amplifier. Persons that have acquired tube gear using current production Chinese tubes that have upgraded to higher quality NOS tubes understand this very well.
The selection of the tube complement for a customer’s amplifer will be influenced by several factors:

Cost...a pair of NOS Western Electric 300b tubes can cost $ 2000 per pair. We consider these the very best tube to use but that performance is bought at a very dear price. We typically recommend the Sophia mesh 300b or its identical twin the TJ mesh 300. Both of these tubes have been found to provide performance approaching the best Western Electric tubes and the price is much more obtainable.

Availability...some tubes are very rare and, consequently, the prices are higher. For example. If cost is not an issue we might recommend the usage of a NOS Philips/Mullard GZ34 for power supply rectification. These can be difficult to acquire and an alternative recommendation might be a 5U4G which is more readily available.

The cost of tubes is separate from the amplifier cost. We do not mark up tubes; we simply pass them along at our cost. A customer, of course, can also supply tubes for any amplifier being constructed.