If NOS pre or power tubes became unavailable altogether, what new tubes would you buy?

I stock-piled enough to outlast the life of the amplifier (and perhaps me as well).

Should be under amp/preamp thread!!

@enginedr1960I I think the only thing Raul gets me thinking is that he's a poseur: His strong opinions are not backed by any experiences he cares to share. There is no "one-size-fits-all" perfect signal path out there, or we'd all have one and there would be no need for discussion or chat rooms. The very subjective nature of the audio experience is what leads to such a multitude of opinion.

Dear @lewm : ""   you see crappy capacitors, bad layout.... ""

well, bipolar transistor can sees as 2-3 dollars crappy parts and with out knowing the designer targets ( even if at a low price point. ) is not easy to talk about " bad layout ".

SS designs are way complex than tube ones and SS always has a lot of parts ( sometimes over 100+. ) but signal does not pass trhough it but only through at minimum of it. 

Today decent SS designs can't performs bad and I listened some of them as: ( @deepee99 ) Ayre, Simaudio, Parasound, Naim, Classé Audio, Gryphon, MBL, ML, Krell, Dartzeel, Chord, Sutherland, FM Acoustics, Boulder, Pass, Rowland, Bryston and to many that's not useful to name it here.

As @tomcy6 posted nor two sounds alike but different because design, excecution's design and parts are different as is each one price.

Now, if we change only one link in our system: say preamp or amp, we can know for sure nothing of what I posted here and elsewhere.

To really learn inside the SS alternative we have to choose both links: phonolinepreamp and amp and we can do choosing from the same SS manufacturer.

As I posted here first premise that we have to acomplish is start from CERO and not wanting or comparing if those first impressions with SS are away or near the tube alternative that's what we were accustom to for many years and that's what we like it.
NO, we have to " close " our listening memory of all past tube experiences. As we never had it.

Then focus for at least 3 months in the SS alternative and attend as often we can to listen live music in a nearfield fashion.

The SS learning process is not only made the electronics changes but, step by step, we have to evaluate if the system/room interactions stay the same or we need to make some chnages " here and there ", we have to evaluate if the speaker position is fine or we have to move or toe in in different ways, we have to evaluate if the cartridge VTA/SRA needs a re-set, we have to know if the IC/speaker cables honor the new system surrounded enviroment, etc, etc,. It's a " long time " approach " not plug and play one. We have to learn to listen with that evaluation ( bullet proof. ) proccess I mentioned in this thread.

Through SS electronics everything ( the good and bad. ) in the system comes out, there is no " room " to hide the system tweaks as with tubes. So, it will comes more revealing and several times we do not like the " true ". We have to be prepared to assimilate it an know what to do or what to change to fix system's errors/mistakes/colorations/distortions ( you name it. ).
Could be that the system with tube electronics like itg because is not overbrigth and dislike it because with SS now is overbrigth and we are tempted to say and think: " SS is brigth when in reality it's not but maybe the speakers it self or other system's link in that complex chain.

Your usual words as: musicality, softness, non-agressive, organic and the like will not appears any more in your new SS based home audio system and you will start to compare its quality level performance with true nearfield live MUSIC.

Btw @tomcy6 we never know what a recording it supposed to sound like ( only if we were during it. ) and we don't need to know to know we are nearer to with SS than with tube ones because the SS way lower colorations/distortions of everykind.

We can't have every single answer till we try it in more or less way I explain here and no we don't have to go with Boulder or Dartzeel to acomplish in the rigth way. Ayre, Simaudio, Parasound or Classe can shows us. 
Again, we only need the rigth and positive attitude to do it seriously in an unbiased way.


regards and enjoy the MUSIC not DISTORTIONS,
R.

Dear @lewm : Not even in the 60K electronics you will see teflon cooper V-caps or naked 2575 resistors. Manufacturers as ML makes very good designs: industrial design type, militar specs parts, bullet proof design type. Even that they do not use " boutique parts " they choosed carefully through proved trusty ones: takes no riscks.

Many of the names I posted design that the active parts stay working at no more of its 40% posibilities, especially those pure class A designs where temperature ( to hot. ) is a real enemy for those parts where the quality performance could " suffer " changes out of specs because that kind of temperature. They design for years to come working in those " hard " conditions. SS designs are really trusty and performs faultless for many many years.
When a trouble is present it’s not easy to fix it as with tubes where you just change one tube and that’s it, always is more complex in SS designs.
My ML 20.6s is very good example about: came fromm more than 25 years and works in pure class A and I play with every single day and never had any single fault: staeady all these years as if were manufactured two days ago. This is SS technology.

The important subject is that if we take the SS path we have to, step by step, re-set the system around the SS electronics understanding the SS whole path. Especially its advantages when we compare it against live MUSIC.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC not DISTORTIONS,
R.