1) The Voskhods have the Rocket logo not the Reflektors. The Reflektors I mention are not the very common dual getter post versions, but the ultra rare SWGP ones made only in '74 and '75. The dual post versions were also made these yrs - so be careful when purchasing.
2) See my ranking of the silver and grays I posted a few pages back
3) Same for the years - the '73's, '72's, 71's all have SWGP and gray shields and are on a par with the '74 gray VRs (although a slightly different sound)
4) Awesome match with the LCD-2's, although I don't own those HPs, I've heard from those who do and love the 6n23p's with them. They are detailed with excellent bass, and a large sound stage.
Buying on Ebay from Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovian, Bulgarian , etc dealers. BUYER BEWARE! I have bought from almost all these folks and it's been a difficult experience. Sometime good, many times bad. I do have a tester and approx 20-30% fail either testing (for shorts, grid emissions, output failure, or large section imbalances) or are very noisy or microphonic (another 10%). So it's hit or miss. Most dealers (and I have complained about this ad nauseam on the this forum) either won't tell you what they are sending you or send you tubes different then the ones pictured. I have only been able to assemble matched prs by buying many auctions and sifting through them, doing the matching myself.
Good luck!
PS My Philips E188CCs arrived from Sweden. They're delta factory codes! So Herleen's! Test excellent - nicely matched. Burning in now. As a side note all tubes should be given a 50 hr burn in min before listening - 100 hrs before serious listening (the 6n23p's keep getting better out to 200 hrs - the longest burn-in of any tube I have owned)
