When tubes were the only game in town, hundreds of millions were made and a lot of money, engineering and manufacturing talent went into producing good tubes; nothing like this kind of market remains to push current manufacturers to up their game.
Also, what remains of tubes from the past that are highly sought after represent the cream of the crop. These are tubes that have been tested by the collective experience of the market. I bet that a whole lot of crappy tubes have long ago been crushed and disposed.
I currently only make use of a few tubes that are available in old and new manufacture. I use 12AX7s in my phono stage and I prefer the older tubes (I currently run Telefunken ECC803S) and I use Western Electric 310a tubes in my linestage. In my Audio Note Kageki amp (on loan to a friend), I did like some currently manufactured tubes, such as the EML 2a3. The only modern tube I run in my currently operating system are two 300b (Sovtek) tubes that are used as rectifiers in my phono stage.
The rest of the tubes in my current system are all, by necessity, old tubes--Western Electric 348 and 349.
Also, what remains of tubes from the past that are highly sought after represent the cream of the crop. These are tubes that have been tested by the collective experience of the market. I bet that a whole lot of crappy tubes have long ago been crushed and disposed.
I currently only make use of a few tubes that are available in old and new manufacture. I use 12AX7s in my phono stage and I prefer the older tubes (I currently run Telefunken ECC803S) and I use Western Electric 310a tubes in my linestage. In my Audio Note Kageki amp (on loan to a friend), I did like some currently manufactured tubes, such as the EML 2a3. The only modern tube I run in my currently operating system are two 300b (Sovtek) tubes that are used as rectifiers in my phono stage.
The rest of the tubes in my current system are all, by necessity, old tubes--Western Electric 348 and 349.