Old Legendary tubes vs New Kids on the block Amperex/Siemens/Tele vs Psvane/TAD/Shugaung

Pinched - slight tightness in the liquidity, slightly dry and constricted. 
Glassy - an artificial shininess

You're bang on using cymbals and basslines as parameters. Think about the size of the stage, the overall color or lack, air and transparency. 

Many NOS are not unless they are NIB (new in box). Some dealers will test and grade transconductance of tubes on a tester. 

Well, if you're getting your tubes on Ebay, you are right off playing a hit or miss gig. Unless you purchase from a reputable dealer like Brent Jessee, Tubeworld, Vintage Tube Services, or maybe even Tube Museum, you have no idea if the tubes you're buying are up to spec, microphonic, or otherwise undesirable. As an example of what I mean, Andy at Vintage Tube Services grades the tubes he sells for "line" "moving magnet" or "moving coil" for small signal tubes like the AX7. As for looking at pins, that's pretty much meaningless; I've seen pristine looking tubes that are dead. Appearance means pretty much nothing.

@ Noromance
Yes I understand what you mean now, For me, it takes some time to hear what each set of AX's are doing. 
You realize most tubes perform very close at 1st listen. Also I need to use 3 or 4 cds which i know very well how the muisc sounds.
One day i was driving and flipping through the FM channels, hita  country station, the song with female vocals, was engineered with super high fidelity, Super Reference cd, But as always, they never give name of cd.
I am using several cds which offera  wide range of expression in fq resolution. 
. Right now, i think the AX to beat is the famous, highly reputed
~~~RCA tall black plates~~~
Yes I know there are 2 models, 50's, vs the later 60's. 
The 50's is suppose to be 
~~Holy Grails~~~ = snakeoil? Not sure/don't know/can't say.

Once all RCA's arrive next week , along witha  bunch of Siemens. I will test Siemens in one channel, RCA is the other.
I will have 4 of each and so, will swap the pairs around fora  full fair evalutation. 
The Teles will be a  future project. 
The good thing about buying Siemens, Teles., RCA's, is that all 3 have very high reputation and so are not so dif to sell off to get at least near what you paid. 


@ Bsmg

Yes I agree, its a bit risky buying off ebay, already had 1 *bad* experience and another ($465/14 Philips AX's NOS??, not sure) i am trying to resolve with the swiss seller. 
I paid $465, asking $390 and I pay return. 
Lets see what he says...
Best to purchase from sellers you mention.

I will confess that I once bought two Valvo labeled EL34 Holland made tubes on ebay from a guy in Germany but he had pics of his test equipment with the tube actually being tested, tubes were in original box, and the brown bases were obviously free from color change due to heat. They are fine tubes but I've not bought any others on ebay. 

I dont understand what risk really exists from buying on ebay. If you pay by Paypal you can send the tubes back for any reason and the seller is more or less forced to accept the return even if they are not at fault. The secret is to say that the tubes are not as described. Ebay supports the buyer 99.9% of the time.

FWIW I recently bought a pair of old Sylvania chrome dome 6SN7s on Ebay for $35 shipping included.  They were advertised as used.  Low power tubes seem to have a long life.  Stats that I don't understand were given, but enough to demo that they are closely matched.  Seller has great feedback.

They sound fabulous and a real bargain in my eyes.

As someone has already written, with Ebay it is easy to return, and if not as advertised postage will be provided.

Earlier I had sought advice from one of the "well established" providers mentioned above.  The pair of tubes (far more expensive)  did not sound good at all in my preamp and were returned.  Postage both ways was about $20.

So you never know.

UPDATE
The swiss seller proved to be a *gentleman anda  scholar*
He went far more than i wanted,,I told him his values are correct,,i misread  the values as tested by a  friend in Washington state.
Told him do not send any money as part refund,,what did he do,,,send $120 in spite of my request. I told him I will help his selling listings , and will buy any/all Tele/Siemens ax's from his ebay listings. 
This , only is the Tele's /Siemens prove their reputation. 
I have a  bunch of RCA/Tele/Siemens arriving this week.
NOS/strong Tele's sell for $50-$70 each. 
Next yr that price will be $70++
Siemens about the same.
Look for a   YT upload by sunday night. 

It is advisable to buy from sellers that give you specific test results with tester minimums also listed. 

Yes I perfer buying from test pics, with better than avg readings,,I love seeing the pointer as far as green as possible, but at times i buy when seller has written scores, super duper high = taking a  chance, worth the risk factor...
OK , APOLOGIES to all Audiogon menbers on my previous test opinions on the AX's...
why
I will explain, 
Received a   box of all srts of Siemens E288/6DJ8/7DJ8's, yeah really nice box of tubes, most with org boxes,,anyway,,as i was about to swap tubes in the cayin cd17,,I noted i had 
1 channel with the Philips, had a  pair of Tesla E88CC's, and the  other channelw ith the Sylvania+ RCA 12AX7's, with
1 Tesla and ONE Philips PCC88 = BIAS TESTING = all my previous test opinions are 
thus]
NULL AND VOID,,
why?
I think, not sure as i am reporting back with a  rushed preliminary testing,,that

~~~The Philips + Tesla had a  superior sound 
vs the dual Tesla, 
= The RCA/Sylvania had the ADVANTAGE of 1 superior <6922> the Philips PCC88, 1970's production, bought cheap off ebay.
Now here is the thing, the Philips AX's  with dual Philips sounded ~~~awefully good ~~if not spectacular = I will not post any more tests results for at least 2 weeks, as i assess all my tubes which are still rlling in from all parts of the globe,
= Need at least 4-5 weeks before i can make a
~~fair/Unbiased/accurate/solid~~ opinion on 
1) E80's
2) AX's
3) 6922's. 

+ I need to order Tele AU's to compare with Philips/Siemens E80CC's before i can make the judgement that
~~E80CC;'s blow away any/all AU's ever made~~~
So looks like more money on tubes and the Tele AU's , as you know go as much as Tele AX;'s,, which is unusual as Amperex/RCA AU's go cheap.
But I may also have to order 2 Siemens AU's to be fair on the wholeshebang in the E80CC vs every/all super high fidelity AU,..
This could extend into months.
Stay tuned,,I may posta  few NOTES,,but nothing likea  ~~solid, bullet proof opinion~~~
But this i can say,,The Philips Miniwatt AX's came ~~alive~~ with the philips PCC88's,,
I still have to test the 
3 Siemens 6922 variatiosn, E288 vs 6dj8 vs 7dj8's.
Purchased Tele AX;'s, more RCA's last night,,,+  I only worked through 3 shipments,,have 3 or 4 boxes sitting ,, not sure what's in them...
Its possible the Phiklips Miniwatt's  have more value than my previous BIASED testing has shown...
Thus the AX shootout, will now 
include the Philips
~~Philips Miniwatt vs Simens vs Tele vs RCA in several forms
I have no idea which will come out top, even or ,,all 4 too close to call = all high fidelity and thus each labs AX's will be slightly dif in each amps voicing. 
I love the Defy 7 for its ~~~puurity~~ which allows this AX/6922 testing to be as unbiased as possible. 
also i should confess at this point, i did OK, not great  ona  hearing exam   4 yrs ago, while working at a refinery doing scaffold work,,,~~highest registers = FAILED> 
Still this disability does not disqualify my testings. this work  is based on some 30 yrs audiophile. 
Stay tuned.