Manley Steelhead Tube Rolling

If you can't play with the tubes, what's the point? That's half the fun of having tubes, tailoring the sound to what YOU like, not the mfg.

Would the steelhead mate with a Mcintosh MC402?

The Steelhead is very, very fast and dynamic, so it would probably mate well with this amp.
Tube rolling is just fine for the Steelhead. Most manufactures don't use current production tubes because they are the best sounding. They will stock their products with what is currently available in new production and assume that the knowlegeable audiophile can provide his/her own tweaks. My steelhead sounds much better with NOS amperex 6dj8 and 6922. Current production sovtek 6922's kinna suck, though the older NOS ones are supposed to be better. You don't really need to change the buffer tubes.

Has anyone had experience with tube rolling the 7044's as well as the 6922's? A poster on the Asylum is using TungSol 5687's in place of the 7044's and getting great results.

Just give it a shot and see how it sounds. Personally I'd try GE 5 star. Maybe 20 bucks. You can find 5687's all over that stinking e**y cheap. Just let them run in for a while to give them a fair chance.