According to Kevin O'Connor from London Power and Power Scaling, matched tubes are not necessary. He states that matched tubes sound more crisp or harsh with increase amounts of odd order harmonics. Also, matched tubes will drift toward unmatched over time. He states that the asymmetries in unmatched tubes give a more warm sound and are more desirable.
These comments come at the bottom of a long web page of faq's. It's worth reading the whole page to better understand tube amps and which tubes can be substituted. See
www.londonpower.com/faq.htm. The specific discussion regarding matched tubes is at the very bottom of the page.
I tried some KT77s in my Overtone. The sound was very similar to the 6L6s. The KT77s seems to run hot and after about a month one tube failed, so I'm back to 6L6s.
Greg B.