Gold lion tubes

Not crazy about his personality, but- when Kevin Deal speaks about a tube’s reliability and presentation; I listen!    ie: https://upscaleaudio.com/products/gold-lion-kt88      I’ve personally compared a quad the Russian/New Sensor, GL/Genelex KT88 repops (from Brent Jessee, with 50 hours on them), to a quad of my last mid-Seventies, GE 6550As (a quad in each monoblock main amp, system in Mono, GEs still testing well into, "GOOD" range for GM and emissions).      The tone, mids and highs were virtually identical, but- just slightly less dynamic in the bottom, with the GLs.      I’ve now had an octet of KT88 repops in my system for over a year and have thoroughly enjoyed their imaging, sound stage, tonality, dynamics and reliability (ie: zero bias drift), over that time.      If you’re still shopping for tubes: contact any reputable tube monger (ie: Upscale Audio, Brent Jessee Recording, TC Tubes, etc) for the facts/to avoid fakes.       Of course, if you can still afford them; nothing’s going to outperform a good testing compliment of original, NOS Genalex, GE, Sylvania or Tung-Sol pentodes