What is your impression of vintage Telefunken signal tubes ?

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.

@genomeip Yes, in the BHK pre, my only tubes component.
To be honest, I never considered the 6v alternative. A quick Gemini search yielded the following: ..described by owners as "taking the blanket off the speakers."… It feels more "front row" and panoramic, whereas your 12Vs feel more like "mid-hall."… however… Because they are higher gain, 6V tubes can be noisier… 

Sounds like fun… going to have to buy a pair of 6v tubes. Thanks!