2a3 Tubes - Favorites?

Understood.

I can't find any feedback on the 2A3T, so I'm in the same boat as far as making rec's.

I assume that many/most are also looking for reliability, along with sound quality, which makes recommending new production tubes somewhat difficult.

This said, I would suggest a nice new testing pair of RCA Black or Gray bi-plates  as a baseline reference and as backups for whatever you find you like better through trial and error.

They should be available in the $200-$300 range and they last forever/sound good in my amps.

I use RCA Back/Gray Bi-P's, Ken-Rad Black glass dual flat plates and early Vissesux engraved base Bi-P's.

I suspect that later screened base Visseaux's may have also been marketed as Mazda (or visa versa), but I have not used either in my setup.

Just throwing that out there in the event that you eventually look into Visseaux.

DeKay

I'll keep them in mind!

Not suggesting Visseaux's but the RCA's seems to be available from a main/reliable dealer.

With a quick search it seems that Brente Jessee has new testing RCA  2A3 matched pairs for $300.

DeKay

Quick update - I picked up a pair of NOS Svetlana SV-2A3 (2C4C) tubes and a pair of EML mesh 2a3s.

Both will take a little bit of time to break in, but immediately fresh out of the boxes, each set sounds much better overall than the Linlai tubes that came with the amp - as to be expected.

I'll see how they develop over time!

While I'm curious about the Takatsukis, I'm not curious enough to spend the asking price on them. I have heard that their 300b tubes are sublime, but they're even more expensive (and I don't have a 300b amp haha).

EML Meshplates are very nice. Should be noticeably better than either the Svetlana or Linlai tubes. I've tried Psvane Acme, KR, Sophia and NOS RCAs and keep coming back to the EML Meshplates.