Amplifier Power tubes - important to sound?

@mulveling 

How do you like your VAC gear, specifically your amps? I have a couple MC275s I've run as monoblocks in a bi-amped setup (currently paired with Pass Labs xa160.8s.) that I think I'm ready repurpose and/or upgrade.

I had planned to buy a VAC Master II pre-amp this month but I re-tubed a couple for local clients over the past couple of weeks and didn't know whether to laugh or scream when I pulled the stock tubes out of them. So I've pumped the brakes a bit One had a pair of Golden Dragon 6922s in it along with 6 Shuguang 12AX7B's in the phono stage, the other a pair of garden variety EH 6922s, no phono stage. How they can plug a couple of $5 gumball machine tubes into a $30k pre-amp and think it's okay is simply beyond me. You could socket a grilled cheese in that thing and it would sound better. The Siemens E288CC Red Tips sure did.

I’ve come to the conclusion that emergingsoul has no system at all and just wants us to think he does. No one would be as elusive as he has been. Fairly entertaining though. 

Funny they aren’t mentioned yet but the Russian Winged C 6550’s are readily available nos for under $100 each. My favorite power tubes ,and I’ve tried many, are the winged c el34’s and kt88’s. 

@rzado 

Those prices are ludicrous. And I buy/sell that stuff everyday. And I feel horrible for charging HALF what those guys charge for that stuff. My god. Everyone thinks the crooks are on eBay when its more often than not the opposite.

TubeDepot's prices are outrageous. Their business practices are even worse. Years ago before I knew anything about anything I bought two pairs of tubes from them. RCA and Ei 12AX7, I still have the receipts. The RCA's that came were a short grey plate and a long-grey plate. The Ei's that came were a nickel plate and a smooth grey plate. I didn't know much then but I knew they looked different enough to warrant a phone call. So I called them asking if there had been a mistake or if I had ordered it wrong. They told me it was absolutely fine, it was intentional on their part, I had in fact ordered two RCA 7025s and technically they were both RCA 7025, and as such they were the same and that there would definitely be no difference in how one sounded from the other. Right, got it. Glad I paid an extra $6 per tube for balanced and matched tubes in addition to the $419.98 I paid for a pair of RCA tubes that weren't even a pair. Same with the Ei tubes. Though, I only paid $155.90 for the Ei tubes, which by way of comparison seems reasonable.

I still have all four of those tubes and the receipts. I use them as training/onboarding materials whenever I bring someone new on to explain which way our moral compass points.

I replaced a quad of E-H KT88 with Gold Lions a while ago along with all my phono and preamp tubes.  There was an overall improvement, but it's hard to tell how much was due to the power tubes.