Tubes are always kind of a gamble, especially older ones--sometimes the Chinese ones sound better than you would expect, and sometimes the super-expensive ones don't sound that great. However, if you're buying new tubes, the brand "JJ" is well-liked for good tone.
Since the LM Tube has a balanced input, I'm sendind my signal through the demeter.
Paired with the VLE control it's tonal bliss, but I wonder if there's more to it with a diff. tube.
Send Demeter an email. Every circuit designer uses particular tubes based on cost, availability, noise, and tone. It's very possible that Jim uses a particular Chinese tube because it offers the best balance of these factors. Nobody will argue that JJ tubes are fantastic but I think it's worth a an email to get the info from the source.
