Brian said:

I think one has to be careful if buying the Chinese
copies of valves around at the current time, as quality
control is almost non existent, though some Russian ones
are made a lot better I'm told.

Chinese valves haven't all been bad, although most made in
large quantities have been.

I notice Watford Valves, possibly the biggest UK retailer,
refused to sell Chinese valves on grounds of quality up
until recently. Now they offer quite a few.

If anyone's got their finger on the pulse, I wonder how well
Chinese valves are respected these days?

Ian