Tube rolling is a very addictive habit. The reason appears to be one of the strongest behavior modifiers. The so called intermittant reinforcement. If every time you bought an old tube worked great obviously the hit or miss factor is gone and the effort you put into aquiring your favorite tube no longer a lucky strike. The once every so often techniques is by far the strongest on lab rats in any event. If they were all bad you would stop trying knowing it is a waste of tiume. I started to think this way when the rush for 5751s was going on about 4 years back. The paranoid nattering neabobs declared NOS or just great 5751s extinct. Afew trickled in making the poossublev lucky catch possible. This drove the market way uo and people were spending power tube nmoney for them. The no never any good result quiuckly extinguishes the hunting behavior rather uickly. The you a can always find a boxes of 100 Sylvania triple mnica Blackpllates sealed and well preserved 5751ws . Leads to no hunting either you would be comfortable just buying what you want when you want it. This is rare even with current productION. They always seem subject to shortages etc or being DCeed because they sound too good making introduction of new invariably worse versions common.
I should tell you the is all from the sort of aff his rocker behaviorlist B.F. Skinner.
The truth is that rolling is a trcherous slope to climb. There is always that one tube just out of reach. It is an addictive and expensive part of the hobby. BTW you can get really good tubes cheaply and really bad ones for a fortune . It gets out of contol fast. My collection of 6SN7s went from a few extra pairs to well over 150 tubes in short order. That is only one of many I use. The small signal tubes got so expensive so fast that I really couldn't afford a risk so I bought a quad of known excellent tubes from a dealer . I paid out the snout but they work flawlessly and suit my taste as predicted from an earlier experience with them
I should tell you the is all from the sort of aff his rocker behaviorlist B.F. Skinner.
The truth is that rolling is a trcherous slope to climb. There is always that one tube just out of reach. It is an addictive and expensive part of the hobby. BTW you can get really good tubes cheaply and really bad ones for a fortune . It gets out of contol fast. My collection of 6SN7s went from a few extra pairs to well over 150 tubes in short order. That is only one of many I use. The small signal tubes got so expensive so fast that I really couldn't afford a risk so I bought a quad of known excellent tubes from a dealer . I paid out the snout but they work flawlessly and suit my taste as predicted from an earlier experience with them