18Watt.com

In tone? If so, where does my sylvania fit in the order of whats good? any reason to look for better?

Man, it's all subjective. Do they make a difference? Yes, but it's as much about feel of an amp as anything.

feel is much more important to me than tone ! Are there some that cause a squishier saggy sorta tone than others? I'd love to get more of that kind of feel.

From the sound of what you've said of your amp goals i think you'd like a stiffer power supply that diodes would provide over saggy tube rectifier.

Not at all. I'm not sure what i said to give you that impression unless maybe the bass issue. But i much prefer sag. Thats a big part of what i'm after. and a big part of tube amp sound. They do have amps that have none tho.......they call em solid state.

ah,, well i figured you wanted a sort of mini-jcm800 which has a pretty stiff power supply.

In some ways, yes. But i do like the sag this amp has, and the basic tone IS similar to a JCM. But with sag. Best of both worlds if i ever get it sorted. Tomorrow morning i get to crank it up a bit and see what the changes i made this weekend did.

I think that Sub somewhere posted experiments with different brand EZ81 ...

Yes i was
I compared few EZ81 (few NOS and JJ).
I measured 3-6V (1-2%) difference between (diff. brand) tubes.