Thinking about a tube roll to Brimar or Telefunken

Albert, Thanks again for the added info. and tipping us off to your association with Joe S. Again I find your help invaluable in my pursuit of the music.
Audiogon threads can sure be a lot of fun with banter flying every which way. In this particular case the wisdom of those that have already "been there" is saving the rest of us great expense and frustration. Thank you.

Thank you Albertporter for the experienced insight. It is invaluable. I feel probably, the hunt is now on for a hand full of Tele's and yes, I also find Aesthetix to be great gear. Combined with Ralph's Atma-Sphere OTL power amps the results are truly magical. It makes me wonder how either of these kind gentleman of audio can keep any of their gear on the shelves. Bravo!

Thank you Rives. Tele's seem to be the thing!

Jea48 Thanks and yes I have read the whole thing on several occasions. In the final analysis he seems to fly in the face of generally excepted favor of Telefunken being the Holy Grail. That’s interesting. Fact is there are plenty of other tubes out there to choose from. Don't believe Joe ever divulges his "rig" and that is a shame. It leaves us with no point of reference. No doubt there is a wealth of observation there.

[email protected], Thank you for the detailed review. Sounds like you two had a great time and have found the magic for your ARC pre's.
As things are shaping up for me, sticking with Albert's recommendations based on his long time Aesthetix background is caring a lot of weight on my choosing.
As most everyone is pointing out, this thing is very system specific and one has to do some careful listening to be sure. Telefunkens for my system appear to be a sound place to start. Enjoy!

[email protected], No, no, no problem, my apologies. I did not mean to infer in any way a criticism of the information you were sharing. I do appreciate your viewpoint and was just making comment that Albert's suggestion to start with Tele's was spot on IMHO given we both have Aesthetix gear, etc. I am in agreement with both Albert and yourself that Joe S has very good and thorough information to share. It's also cool to find out from Albert that he and Joe S are friends and like friends, agree on some things and not on others. What a small world. And fine wine is always... well, Fine! Thanks again

Well, just a note... it has been a while and I have pretty well rolled both the Aesthetix Calypso and Rhea to my extreme satisfaction. Tried many vintage tube rolls with a variety of Mullards, Amprex orange globe and Bugle Boy, Telefunken ribbed and smooth plate. In the final cut the Telefunken smooth plate and Amprex Bugle Boy Long Plate w/D getter 12ax7's were my favorite. The Bugle Boys may have an edge over the Tele's in that they sparkle just a bit while on some music the Tele's have a hint of dry presentation, but I'm splitting hairs, trust me. Both are outstanding compared to the current junk being produced today, I'll be it cheap and easy to find. The pick on 6DJ8's was the same with the Bugle Boys shining out a bit and the Tele's sounding great. These vintage tubes resolved so many things that were just plane wrong with the music from top to bottom. I notice an ease now and sweetness as well as detail along with a huge serving of soul in these vintage old valves that wasn't present in the new stuff. God have we come a long way in electronics and yet fallen desperately behind on tube design and manufacturing! One note that I find worthy of mentioning in helping the sound of my system along and making my evaluation clearer and more concise was the addition of extensive acoustic room treatments and a tube roll in my Atma-Sphere MA-1 Silver Edition power amps to Sylvania 6SN7-GTB's from the Chinese junk that they came with. These two upgrades made signal tube roll evaluation a breeze. So there you go, it's an old tale and I'm far from the first to tell it.
Happy Listening!

Thanks again to all of you who commented on this thread and help guide me along. Much appreciated as always!