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RE: Tung sol 12ax7 vintage black plates? Is the hype true?

Posted by Mendel on February 17, 2017 at 09:16:22:

I find most of the European tubes over rated and over priced. I will take a mil spec Raytheon black plate square getter 12ax7 over any Mullard, Telefunken or Amperex 12ax7 I have heard (have not heard the Mullard 10M, Amperex long plates or the Tele 803s however). Same with the early RCA blackplates. Heck, I even prefer the Tung Sol grey plate square getter to most Euro types. These US tubes can still be found for reasonable prices if one looks around.
The best Euro 12ax7s I have are the Siemens long plates (the short plate double getter holder are pretty good too) and the Valvo tilted getter 12ax7s made in the Hamburg plant.
Of course this is all very circuit related and based on individual listener preferences. There is no "best" tube. All the tubes mentioned are at least good (and will smoke most if not all new production), I just find many Euro tubes overpriced because of the big names and because they are "European" as if US made tubes are necessarily inferior. Some very nice Japanese tubes as well.
Enjoy the roll!