Best.......................
..............yeah.............well...............................
................who's the judge?
Anyway, I'll try to summerize the concensus (sort of!) that I gathered from frequenting this here place.
For vintage, it's hard to to beat the Telefunken V76.
V72 is nice, too.
And there's RCA etc.
When we look at new units, the DW Fearn VT-1/2 stands out, at least when it comes to build quality.
When it comes to sonics, The Thermionic Earlybird seems to be a favorite here.
And there's Pendulum, LaChapell, Mercury, A-Designs, QESlabs etc. You can't lose with those, either.
"Best" automatically makes it a High End topic BTW.
Henk