Compressor Tubes

I am looking to upgrade the 12AX7 tube in my compressor. Of course I have been looking at Telefunken, but I have been told that most of the tubes available are knock offs. I was also told that any Telefunken tube that is being sold for under $500 is not authentic (reason being that most of the original Telefunken were destroyed im WWII). So my question is, has anyone heard this information to be true? Also, how do I know if a tube being advertised is authentic if all of them are NOS (new old stock). And lastly, are there any alternative tubes that will give a quality sound and what is the price range? Thanks in advance.

if i remember correctly 12au7 pops right in too. a bit different but not bad at all.

i use tubes i find from ebay, valvo etc. i get all sorts of brands and test each one out, leave the best sounding on. if i remember correctly, at least in european tubes, most of them came from the same factory and were just labeled differently. philips, valvo etc are the same tubes. telefunken and siemens might be the same. i don´t remember correctly, sorry.

i would be on for just telefunken. buy from ebay and test different brands out.

Thanks man, I appreciate your help

Just to add a monkey wrench in the mix....

The tube may have some impact on the flavor of gear, but it is the audio transformer that really shapes quite bit of the sound of a unit.


Peace.

that is very true. tubes in microphones have more clear difference in switching tubes rather than in mic pres/comps/eq's.

changing the audio transformer is more clear, but that's more difficult to do. i've tried a variety of oep, lundahl, sowter, jensen... you name it. the difference is more distinct.