I like the plain brown box military surplus CTL 1626s, particularly the ones marked thusly:
U.S. NAVYCTL 1626VACUUM TUBE
MANUFACTURED BY
TUNG SOL LAMP WORKS INC.
CONTRACT NXs-6302
ACCEPTED NOVEMBER 1942(
Mostly because I managed to find a large quantity of these, several years ago, at a "silly low" cost).
The original US made Tung Sols are of excellent quality, and should not to be confused with the "New" Tung-Sol power tubes,
which are manufactured in Russia. No new manufacture 1626s exist, as far as I know.
I've also found that just about any 1940s vintage 1626s are very good, and I've not noticed any major differences between brands.
These were also produced by RCA, Hytron, and possibly even Western Electric.
1626s were never intended as audio tubes, but were designed for use as RF oscillators and low-power (approx. 5 Watts) Class C RF Power amplifiers,
and the published operating characteristics and spec sheets reflect this.
Some more 1626 facts and figures:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1535&p=9607#p9607It is less than a minute from 2015, Happy New Year, everybody!
/ed B inNC