Luxman preamp into Mark Levinson amp?

Good point. I remember reading they use JJ's. I must have been reading promotional material because they described them as a great tube. What tubes would you reccomend.

@squirrely ,

First I got a quintet of Genalex Gold Lion 12AU7 long plates. There was a definite upgrade over JJ, but after a short while, I got a matched quintet of Amperex from '65. Gotta tell you, NOS stuff is becoming more expensive now than just a few years back. But in any case, Genalex is a very solid new production tube.

You can buy just three good tubes and leave the two tone control tubes inside, but I did all five. Now, the phono part uses three of the 12AX7 type. Never replace it with 12AU7. If you're going to use it, you have to get a really strong, quiet trio. Again, Genalex makes solid 12AX7 short plates. For NOS, I hope others will chime in.

Thank you Hasmarto. I am aware of the expense of NOS tubes and have a hard time justifying the cost. That may be due to lack of experience but NOS Mullard EL34 are crazy expensive. With the reproduction Mullards comming out of Russia, who knows what is going to happen in the future. I'm interested in comparisons that you and others may have experienced with NOS tubes. What improvements did you notice using the Amperex tubes over the Gold Lions? I'll tale a look at the Gold Lion tubes. Thanks again.

Try the Telefunken etc.82. They sound really good.
But it also depends on what sound you want or what you like.

I use ML 27.5 connected to ML 326S and drive SF Cremona M speakers. Those two amps match very well. Preamplifier has very nice volume control and also input sensitivity can be changed to accommodate different input signal strengths.
I had before Threshold T3 and volume control was too sensitive and sound was a bit grainy in hight frequencies. I think the same brand power and pre work better. Sorry this was not about tubes….but good sound.