Time for new tubes.. which ones?

I replaced the stock tubes with Groove tubes 12AX7s from Upscale Audio. Reasonable price and nice improvement over the stock tubes.

I just ordered a few different pairs of tubes for my TAD-150 to try out.

Cryoed Sylvania 5814A black ribbed plates NOS
Cryoed Sovtek 12AX7LPS NIB
Cryoed Tung Sol 12AX7 ECC803S Gold Pin NIB

I'll post when I have checked them out.

Also head good things about the JJ/Tesla 12AU7 ECC802 Long Plates.

Tube progression, so far....

Stock t7-flat sounding, rolled off top and bottom lack depth and width of soundstage
RCA x7a ribbed gray plate-better than stock
RT u7wa-ribbed gray plate-better than the RCAs but one was a bit noisy (couldn't stand it, wish I could have listened longer)
Brimar u7wa-gray ribbed long plate-better than any above-wider soundstage, increase in bass
Sylvania JHS 5751-wow, a direct hit, improvement across the board-Very nice soundstage width and depth, plenty of detail and prat! Gain match with volume control into my Mc DNA-125 is right on.
Mullard x7-short plates, halo getter-A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT-detailed but very flat-lost the soundstage completely (I hope everyone does not read this thread because these will be for sale soon!)
GT ax7m-playing now, just got them today-These are nice, very, very close to the 5751s mentioned above. They may lack some of the fine detail of the 5751s but not much. I can live with either.

I would like to try some nos 50s long plate Mullards or Telefunkens but I got to agree with Swampwalker, it seems a bit crazy to put $100 plus tubes in this pre (or does it?). For $50 a pair or so the 5751s or the GTs would seem hard to beat.

I have never fooled with cryoed tubes so I would be interested to get Stratosaur's impressions...

12UA7s are a big thing in a small tube. I am using mullards and the are a great improvement over the Chinese tubes that came with my McIntosh 2102 amp.

what are you trying to create sonically ??

different tubes have different presentations.