Mesa OUT, Reeves IN............

[Granny Gremlin]

But honestly whether all of the different brands have much of a differing sound is a pretty small factor, after doing a bit of tube rolling the differences are often so subtle as to not be terribly noticeable in any context but specifically listening for differences.

I dunno; I was skepti.  Rolling some preamp tubes was easy and I didn't notice much difference unless it was between long plate and short plate varients.  But then I replaced the GE 6550s in my Sunn with the Teslovak KT88s and it's pretty obvious.  I mean, yes, the GECs were older and may have lost some low end, but the KT88s were so woofy I doubt the GECs where anywhere close even when new.  Also the midrange snarl the6 have is completely unmatched by the KT88s.  I guess they're technically not the same tube type, but still.

[D.M.N.]

I dunno; I was skepti.  Rolling some preamp tubes was easy and I didn't notice much difference unless it was between long plate and short plate varients.  But then I replaced the GE 6550s in my Sunn with the Teslovak KT88s and it's pretty obvious.  I mean, yes, the GECs were older and may have lost some low end, but the KT88s were so woofy I doubt the GECs where anywhere close even when new.  Also the midrange snarl the6 have is completely unmatched by the KT88s.  I guess they're technically not the same tube type, but still.

You're right, another thing I should have qualified, tubes of the same type have subtle differences, when you change types they're much more noticeable, such as the 6550s generally having more prominent mids and KT88s having bigger lows and glassier highs. Though I don't think you'll ever drastically change the baseline character of the amp, unless you were to pop in something like EL34s in place of 6550s and KT88s. I really should proof read my posts to make sure I'm saying what I mean to be saying.

[amptech]

The amp is going to have its own sound, and I really think that is going to shine through no matter what tubes are in there with small variances depending on what brand and variation you use. Might be the differences are more noticeable in a HiFi setting, but I don't think I'e ever popped a fully functional tube into one of my Sunns and thought it sounded bad, though obviously there's some I prefer over others.

That's it right there. Each tube manufacturer has it's own 'design' of a tube, and for a popular one - ECC83/12AX7 as an example - there might be a few different designs and they sound different. But then again, one specific design wind up being called something else entirely.
But they won't sound different. Some might be inherently more microphonic prone and noisier than others by design, but the main problem is that the tube brands (peolple who select the good from the bad) sometimes label the regular good tubes as premium and the  faulty ones standard. Everything hit the market and that's the real problem. Many amp owners ask me if I have compared the RI Mullards or Tung Sols to the original. What original? What specific ECC83/12AX7 by Mullard did they copy? Well, it's not a reissue by design, materials or anything else. It's a tube, and it should work as indicated on the data sheet. Hopefully it's not noisy and prone to microphonics and if it is you should return it

So jealous.

My wife is not. She told me that if I she ever saw those tannoy's in our living room, she'd split! I actually got them for free, from a speaker developer I know that used to work as an engineer in a studio that used 4 of these as monitors. And he gave them to me because of the wife factor

[clankenstein]

Well ,the Domestic Resistance Factor applies to my Quad ESL57 Electrostatics also.....

[Granny Gremlin]

Yeah, not nearly as nice as either of those, but my wife insisted we lose the Technics 15" 3 ways we had in the living room a few years back.  I loved them, but they were huge and, technically, hers not mine (she inherited the system) so I could not argue.  I could however steer the replacement process.  Sold them to some student about to have a house party.

That's what spurred me to design and build my 4" fullrange transmission lines.  The ptototypes are in the living room wall, I use a pair for monitorring in my studio and my brother has a pair in his home theatre system.

I would trade my left nut for a pair of those Tannoys though.  Been hooked since I went into a studio one time that was using them. 

[rockbobmel]

Well the Reeves C225 passed with flying colors!  What a thick, strong voice with incredible definition. I was playing it through a pair of Aguilar GS 112s (1 with a DeltaLite II 2512. This gives the top box a more pronounced mid voice. The originals are more mid scooped, I believe because it was intended as a stand alone box. GS112 x 2 = more than GS112 x1 +1 (if you get the meaning)

It sounded so good,  I might dump my Bergantino NV 215.

[Granny Gremlin]

I love it when a rig comes together.

[doombass]

Nice to hear you like it.

[rockbobmel]

I talked to Bill at Reeves and he remembers this amp going out with the TAD KT88s, so it does in fact have the original tubes- as the seller stated. Seller also stated it had zero miles on it.  Just a bedroom start up a few times.   Man, this sounds amazing, tone controls at noon, normal and bright channels jumped with Y cord.