Which 300B ?

[JC951t]

Hi All,
I know that this has been posted many times but
I do could not any comparison test made recently.
Anyway question is: In the price bracket of around
USD 300 per pr. Which 300B sounds the best &
how reliable are they ?

Many thanks

[lochness]

My personal opinion is that the 300b isn't worth it but if you must...go with the Svetlana. I have some Svetlana made tubes and they seem to be good quality. Really I don't belive in spending more than $50-$60 for a tube. The Svetlana is in the $300-$400 range I think.

DON'T BUY THE WE TUBES! Its like buying a Mac (ie buying something severely overpriced for what you're getting). And don't give me the whole "...but the experience of opening the box..." crap.

[kevinkr]

Originally posted by lochness
My personal opinion is that the 300b isn't worth it but if you must...go with the Svetlana. I have some Svetlana made tubes and they seem to be good quality. Really I don't belive in spending more than $50-$60 for a tube. The Svetlana is in the $300-$400 range I think.

DON'T BUY THE WE TUBES! Its like buying a Mac (ie buying something severely overpriced for what you're getting). And don't give me the whole "...but the experience of opening the box..." crap.

My experience with the Svetlana 300B has not be good at all, so bad in fact I will not recommend it to any one even now, but I admit I bought my last ones around 2001. I've had about 9 go bad from filament issues, basically the filaments sag with use and either come into contact with the grid or come very close to it with serious arcing during warm up being the result. Most lasted at most a few hundred hours. One other has very poor emission and it has less than 1000 hrs on it. Out of a dozen or so I have bought I have just two left that still work. None were ever run under abusive conditions. These tubes clearly have filament issues which since this is the only DHT Svetlana has made in recent history might not be that surprising. (I am not sure it is even in current production, and definitely do not buy the earlier ones.)

I have similar vintage JJ that both sound better in my SE and PP amplifiers and have not given me a moment of trouble in six years.

I've also used WE 300B and KR types in some of my products and have found them worth the money sonically speaking if you can afford them. (FWIW I still think the WE 300B in current production is about as good as it gets, just too expensive for my budget.)

I'd pass on Valve Arts and Shuguang based on prior experience, although these too may have improved. I was not that impressed with the EH 300B for a little more money the JJ sounds a lot better.

The TJ meshplate globe 300B is a very nice sounding tube as well, although I have not heard this one in my own amplifier. I have heard them in other amplifiers and found them to be good sounding in comparison to others. They are quite reliable long term from what I have heard as well. This is one I will consider when retube time rolls around.

[JC951t]

Hi Kevin,
Are the TJ mesh the same brand as Full Music mesh ?
I Wonder how good are the Shuguang 300BSB also
a ballon glass tube. In HK lots of 300B users are saying
that the Shuguang 300BA's are very relaible & sound
very good as well. Of course that could be speculation.

[kevinkr]

Hi JC,
IIRC The Full Music and TJ tubes are the same. These days I believe they all just carry the TJ name. They are very well respected and you can buy locally with a great warranty here:

http://www.diyhifisupply.com/diyhs_vacuum_tubes.htm

Check out the TJ factory tour - it is pretty cool.

I have heard that the current Shuguang tubes are good, but hesitate to recommend them based on prior experience. These aren't all that much less expensive than the TJ so unless someone sends me samples for evaluation I can't recommend them for that reason..

IMO The TJ has a slightly warmer/softer sound than the WE 300B, the differences are relatively subtle. (Not compared in my amplifier.)

I'm using JJ 300B in my amplifiers and found to my surprise that they stood comparison to some 1950's vintage WE 300B quite well. (Compared in my amplifier.) The WE managed slightly tighter and more tuneful bass, other than that the differences were unremarkable. The JJ 300B was/is (?) a very good sounding tube.

[JoshK]

Kevin,

I'm curious how you would compare the KR to the WE, as you are the only one I know who has heard both. They are both serious money so buying them both to try it pretty much out for most mortals.

P.S. I own a quad of the JJs.

[dubdub]

Originally posted by lochness
My personal opinion is that the 300b isn't worth it but if you must...go with the Svetlana. I have some Svetlana made tubes and they seem to be good quality. Really I don't belive in spending more than $50-$60 for a tube. The Svetlana is in the $300-$400 range I think.

DON'T BUY THE WE TUBES! Its like buying a Mac (ie buying something severely overpriced for what you're getting). And don't give me the whole "...but the experience of opening the box..." crap.

I like my mac-it's the dht of the computer world

[agent.5]

Originally posted by dubdub



I like my mac-it's the dht of the computer world

I disagreed, and I am typing on a Mac. The Mac has a good operating system(output transformer), but the rest of the Mac -- power supply, capacitors, resistors, wiring are cheap, generic, inferior, and overpriced.

If you want to do it right, build your own Mac, with best DIY parts.

[kevinkr]

Originally posted by JoshK
Kevin,

I'm curious how you would compare the KR to the WE, as you are the only one I know who has heard both. They are both serious money so buying them both to try it pretty much out for most mortals.

P.S. I own a quad of the JJs.

Was pretty long ago, both were good, but in most cases I have ended up preferring the WE.. General impression was that the WE had slightly better mids and smoother highs, KR might have been a bit punchier but less refined.

I think the JJ offer most of the available magic for a fraction of the price, differences between this tube and the best are very incremental if you've got good ones. (Mine are 6yrs old)

[rdf]

Originally posted by kevinkr
I was not that impressed with the EH 300B for a little more money the JJ sounds a lot better.

Right now with the regular EH available for roughly half the JJ it seems a good candidate for a DC coupled circuit experiment in mind. Any sense for its robustness/reliability? I recall you're a fixed bias fan (too), do you find 300Bs generally bias in the same range?