300b lovers

I've lived through many new equipment break-in events over the years. As my experience level increases and the resolving capabilities of my system increases, it has been easier to track changes through the duration of the event. In a moment of judgement, it can be difficult to make statements of progress or regression as we aren't very good at making absolute comparisons, unlike numerical measurements. It's always relative and our powers of perception are better at establishing trends over time than snap judgements. It is possible to fool yourself in a single session. More valid impressions form through multiple sessions.

Here are several notable examples where break-in from new was significant and long in duration.

Antipodes K50 Server. From new, un-listenable for 9.5 days of continuous power up. Utter dreck. By two weeks of on time the performance was quite good. After 1 month, exceptional. After 6 months, fully plateaued. My experience, corroborated by others, and the manufacturer. The reason - power supply capacitor break in.

Daedalus Apollo 11 speakers. Pretty rough on arrival. Grainy HF. Over days the bass would come and go. By 110 hours the sea began to part. The grain and hearing fatigue began to lift. Bass came in. By 150 hours they were quite good. The manufacturer claims 400 hours for full break in. Guess my hearing isn't that good. Mundorf capacitors are the main culprit here.

Taiko Extreme music server. Sounded OK on arrival. After a couple weeks, quite good. After 1 month exceptional. Here's the rub on this one, even after fully broken in. If you shut it down for 15 minutes, unpowered, it takes 4 hours to recover. If you unpower for over 1 day, it takes 4 days to recover. All of a sudden the drapes open and it's a nice sunny day. These experiences are corroborated by the manufacturer too. Cause - power supply capacitors.

The common ingredients in these events are the capacitors. I suspect that these parts are the special sauce that makes this level of performance possible.

I have not heard a power amplifier exhibit this extreme of behavior from new, but that does not mean these parts don't require break in and overall performance will benefit from more run time.

If you are throwing parts in the bin after 30 minutes, I think you are missing out on some opportunities.

I've read plenty of attempts at explaining why parts, particularly capacitors change during break-in (they do plateau, they don't keep changing) but it doesn't matter unless you are a capacitor designer/manufacturer. Results are results. The reasons why don't matter for users.

Engineering is the prostitution of science. Even scientists don't have all the science worked out yet. Not even close.

Lynn,

Could you expand further on your balanced, but not differential comment? What is your philosophy, what have you observed?

I can appreciate the desire to chase the sound quality rabbit to fruition, but it seems likely this will result in more boxes and a bit higher cost. No doubt there is a market for this. Maybe there are two markets? Two versions at different price points?

First, loving the conversations here - delving into the correlated technical stuff. Everyone should have a Tektronix RTA for this hobby, lol. But the last time I used one they were over $50k. That's more than a good pair of interconnects🙄.

It's also intriguing reading that these amps will run Monolith output iron. Kind of curious which series they are based on, but maybe that's asking too much.

Tubes

Over the years I've used quite a few different tubes from NOS to current production - Shuguang, Psvane, JJ, Sophia, Linlai, KR (Kron), EML, Takatsuki, WE. Some brands aren't worth mentioning. In the past I preferred KR in amplifiers as they are wideband, dynamic, and have solid bass. But depending on the system, can come across as a little unrefined/aggressive. I liked them in what I had. (PX4, PX25, 242, and 5u4g)

But with 300b in what I've owned:

Art Audio - They make heat and conduct electricity. About the nicest thing I can say about them

Shuguang 98b - Meh. Pretty darn average across the board. Puts me to sleep.

Shuguang BT - Pretty good in a VAC Renaissance P/P amp. But other places are bright, lacking midbass weight, and little bass

Linlai 300b E - A good step up, decent bloom and detail, a little light in the midbass and down low

EML 300b XLS - Pretty good. Not as nuanced as the best. Depth and width OK, but not the best. Good low end drive. Much better than everything listed above.

Takatsuki - Excellent tube. Best bass drive. Good Detail. Depth and inner resolution good, but not the best.

WE 300b new production (2022) - Excellent detail, inner resolution, nuance. Holographic. Quiet. Appropriate bass weight and definition. Not as punchy as the Tak or the EML. That will depend on your system. 5 year warranty and projected long life. Love this tube in my SET amp. Well worth the money.

So I find a huge performance delta in the list. Spending the money will be rewarded, probably more in SET than P/P, but that's speculative.

Oh, regarding comments about DAC's made earlier, I concur with Don who has a Lampi Pacific 2 with DHT output, my Lampi Horizon dac is the most significant piece in my system. But there are no unimportant pieces.

Very curious to hear user comments once the production Blackbird and Raven hit the wild.

Don thanks for sharing what you are hearing with the OPT and tubes. I’ll have to hear these somehow someway. 
 

I share my tube experiences because I know how hard it is to get all of these expensive things in one session so they can be A/B/C/D compared. Some I owned, some were loaned. Goes without saying that everyone will find their own preference. But meaningful differences exist. I roll till I find the right ones then stop. Some never do.

I was mistaken. Thought you did the PAC 2 upgrade already. From what I hear (from Fred) it is money well spent. If this was an option when I had my Pacific, I would have gone to 2 and stopped. End game. The PAC is DHT, the Horizon is not. Some consider the 46 as the best option. I never had any to try. I can say the EML 45 globe mesh are pretty special in a Thomas Mayer amp and the Pacific. But rare unobtainium now. But my everyday Pacific tubes were KR RK PX25. I ran these in my amps too, which is kind of funny.