Rangemaster with AC128's - REPORT

[MarshallPlexi]

Today I received 10 AC128's from an eBay auction and I installed one of them in my Rangemaster clone. The sound is WAY better than it was before as I replaced the NTE158 with the AC128. The guitar feels different now and the pedal sounds better. When I say the guitar feels different, I mean the strings feel more rubbery and alive than they did before.

I'm confused about one thing though. The NTE158 was pretty noisy for some reason (hfe - 104), but these new transistors are much more quiet even though the leakage is through the roof on them. I was told that any leakage over 0.300 was unusable, but the unit I tested sounds great with a leakage of 0.460

Any ideas? If it sounds good and is not noisy, what is the problem with having a leaky cap?

Here are the specs on the transistors I received today.

(Transistor used)
hfe - 91
leakage - 0.460

hfe - 86
leakage - 0.630

hfe - 132
leakage - 0.960

hfe - 5
leakage - 0.060

hfe - 138
leakage - 0.800

hfe - 152
leakage - 0.840

hfe - 152
leakage - 0.900

hfe - 126
leakage - 0.800

hfe - 162
leakage - 1.110

hfe - 132
leakage - 0.690