Tubes ECC88/6DJ8? Need all the help I can get

Sorry if I should complicate matters: The advice so far is excellent as far a personal taste, listening habits etc are concerend. Also there is a definite advantage of the ECC802s over the ordinary brands of ECC 82s as regards tube life, freedom of microphonics, tube hiss etc. Generally they are built to such close standards, that matching them is most probably not even necessary if they are truly NOS. The Teslas are good tubes, but nothing really spectacular. You might just as well stick with the original ones. I would prefer the Telefunkens for silence, speed and a wonderful liquid midrange. They are hard to find though, but there are reputable German dealers who sell through ebay, they go for about 80-120 bucks a piece. At the moment there are a quad of Mullards for sale, which equal the liguidity of the Teles, but have a wonderful warmth as well, which gives female voices an extra shine. They are ultra rare, the dealer has good feedback and you can find them at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3021220838&category=3284. They are probably worth while to look into. If you want the best, Teles and Mullards are the ones to go for, the Siemens are a bit cold and generally not so much liked by audiophiles...Cheers and happy listening,

Jax2, I am in complete agreement with you and apologise for being unclear as far as the matching of those NOS tubes is concerned. What I had in the back of my mind was exactly what you had stated at the end of you post, that contrary to the matching of power tubes, the matching of preamp tubes is far less important and that generally in the range of the ECC 803s and 802s tubes, if from the same batch, differences are slight and certainly not noticeable to my ears at least when listening to music.

TGM, in Jadis gear I have had the best results with:
1. Telefunken ECC803s and 802s. They must have the typical Telefunken diamond imprinted as part of the glass bottom of the tube.(not silkscreened but in the glass tubebody itself!)
2."Normal" Tele 83 or 82s with the diamond.
3. Mullards as a close second, or even a first with rather coolish equipment.
4.French Mazdas ECC83/82 are highly musical as well and a sleeper!
5. Amperex bugle boys if you want slam and dynamics and don't care so much for a warm midrange.
6. The Sylvania you mention
7. Personally found the Siemens 82 a bit "whitish" and grainy, did not like them.
All this is purely subjective anyway. Cheers,