• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

help needed from the 300b crowd!

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Ok. I got my 300b amplifier.

Now : which brand of tube to buy?

Since this is my first set, and i'll probably bias them too hot and burn them out quick or something...i want to go with a lesser-cost brand... So WE is right out.

So : between Valve Art and ElectroHarmonix, who makes the better 300b ? ( i think these both go for about $40-50 each )

Are there better manufacturers that are in the same ballpark price range?

-Maz
 
Hello,

Here is another link for an equally interesting test about different 300Bs. By the way, there is no reason why you should "fry" your tubes, providing you take a few minutes to choose a proper bias/voltage setting. Your 300Bs should last long, very long. Enjoy!

Sylvain;)
 
I quite enjoyed the Valve Art 300Bs I had. I got them from Angela Instruments. I think they were the Angela branded ones.

Later I regretted keeping the Svetlanas in favor of the Valve Arts. The Svetlanas turned out to be weird and one has since failed, but that's my own fault. I bought them from someone selling them as factory new, but cheaply on eBay. I think they were rejects or seconds.
 
Hi Magnetmaz,

The Valve Art are OK. They are Chinese made. I got a pair from Angela when Angela was selling them. Unfortunately they no longer sell them under their name, nor any other name.

The Electroharmonix are actually Sovtek. They do sound a little nicer. They would be my choice in the low end.

As far as I know, without having heard them but trusting implicitely the source, the JJ/Tesla 300B is outstanding. They do make some great sounding tubes.

Ned at Triode Electronics says they are quite good for the money.

However, for experimenting, get the Valve Arts. They are cheap, sound very good, and you can always upgrade later when you are secure in the thought that your amp will work with reasonable stability.

Oh, BTW, where can you get them for $40-50????? I get them for about $80-100 USD. Or is that in British pounds?

Hope this helps,
Gabe
 
I've just looked at his sales n ebay. He does sell the EH for $45
Mine however are totally without markings
 

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Bas Horneman said:
a lot of Svetlana's fail...

Apparently there is something about the filament in the svets..heating up cooling down that breaks the filament as they contract and expand over the "thingies" that hold them in position.

This one developed a short between two of the electrodes. They both had glowing spots on the plates from the start. I managed to get an exchange for one that I noticed right away, but I didn't notice the other one until much later while I was listening in the dark. The one sent as an exchange had a way out of spec mu.

This guy was selling crap tubes. They must have been rejects or seconds.
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
SVETLANA

Hi,


Not trying to give Svetlana a bad wrap here. Just trying to help people make informed decisions.

The question is whether the problem was due to the tubes or a badly chosen bypass cap?

Either way I don't think one can claim that the Svetlana 300Bs are of any lesser quality than the others.
I recall more bad 300Bs from KR and VAIC that cost a lot more than the Svets.

Good advice before spending any $ on 300Bs would be to have a good dealer willing to back up the product with some form of warranty.
If people work with valves a lot it is also good to have a tube tester so the valves can be checked immediately after purchase.

Valves do not have an MTBF, most of the time they either die or misbehave within a week of use or they just last untill they are used up like a candle.

Cheers,;)
 
Good advice before spending any $ on 300Bs would be to have a good dealer willing to back up the product with some form of warranty.

Agree


My svet's have not packed up...simply because I have not used them yet. But a fellow dutch diy'er bought around 200 of which half failed pretty quickly... I have also seen numerous posts over at the AA complaining. So most of my "knowledge" is 2nd hand.

So another piece of good advice would to be to fire up the filament when you get the tubes...because if you are buying tubes to be used later say 6months later..you will have exceeded the warranty period before even plugging them in.

I have indeed heard a lot of complaints about the KR and VAIC versions.

Cheers,
Bas
 
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