What is your impression of vintage Telefunken signal tubes ?

@milpai 

I think a lot depends on system matching too?

agree that tube selection is like any other component, including cables -- should be chosen carefully to synergize with the rest of the setup to achieve the sonic attributes desired

this having been said, i have found that specific vacuum tube sonic traits remain remarkably consistent and audible in well designed gear, but is particularly noticeable in simpler (sometimes older) circuit designs that use the tube as a more essential part of the musical production (i.e. in the i/v amplification section, as opposed to in a follower/buffer application) -- so one should always thoroughly understand what each tube in a piece of gear is actually doing 

in a vac pa90c amp set for instance, the difference between an iec mitcham mullard 12ax7 in the first position input/phase splitter spot vs a heerleen amperex one is immediately audible

I have several ( read too many!) NOS testing small signal tubes; 12AX7, 5751, & 12AT7.  I’d rank them as follows:

1. Telefunken, smooth and ribbed plates.  I can’t tell much difference in the two. Clean, clear, detailed and neutral throughout frequency range, top to bottom.  The reference standard. Great for hours of non fatiguing listening.

2. Amperex Bugle Boy. Similar to the Telefunkens but with sparkle and shimmer on top end. Big, expansive sound stage. Nice wow factor.

3. Raytheon black plates. Warmer, “darker” with great mid and lower bass. Also big soundstage. My favorite for jazz and acoustic folk.

RCA black plates and GE 5 star next in line, then Sylvania black plates.Mullard and Brimar veiled and “softer” without any wow factor in my system.

Teles top technically.

telefunken nos tubes are good, $$$! 

sylvania ones nos are reasonable, less $$! 

I miss calling Toni @Telefunken just to chat.  RIP my old friend!

@signaforce I had read your posts from 2024 re your selection of the BHK preamplifier.   I also went the same route last week and I’m still very much in the breakin period.  The tubes you referenced above, are those for the BHK?

I was running a stock Freya Plus and found a heavenly match of tubes to go with it.   So far, the Freya Plus is better than the BHK, but the Delta is getting narrower as the stock BHK tubes breakin (about 50 hours so far).

My belief is that I’m going to have to do some tube rolling to take advantage of what the BHK can do.  In terms of the 12 volt options, everyone seems to love the  Brimars which seems like you can agree.

But, I have seen where people comment about switching to the 6 volts (change the jumper configuration), and once they do that, they say "magic" happens and that they’ll never go back to 12 volt.  Have you tried that yet?

The stock Psvanes are minimally acceptable, but a little noisy.  My goal is to try to achieve a better SQ than my Freya configuration...let's see.

I think I’m going to try matched pair of top notch, cryo Electroharmonix 12 volts first since that was one of the matched pair tube brands that was magical in my Freya first, and then will move on to a 6 volt.