In my opinion, a tube amp is much more dependent on its sound by the parts behind it, than the tubes. That's what separates an EL34 based amps from Air Tight and Jolida. Transformers are the most expensive and important part of an amp. The difference between an OK amp, and a great one. Circuit topology and passive parts quality are also vastly overlooked. We tend to overly concentrate on tubes(myself included) because that is the one area of an amp we can easily tinker with. And, we can get different sounds using different tubes. I always use the analogy of a car. It is very rare people change engines(transformers), but we do find different brands of gasoline(tubes) to offer us different performance. So we buy the gas we like. That being said, I do have opinions on the 2A3 vs. the 300B. The 300B were in the SETs I listened to first. Very open, a bit bright in some instances, more lively than I was expecting. Very nice. I disregarded the 2A3 completely. "It was too low in output. Who would be interested in a 3 to 5 watt amp? Blah, blah, blah" After a year or so, I listened to a 2A3 amp. Then more of them. The experience really opened my eyes. Showed me how much a fool I truly am. And once again proved to me how stupid it is to judge books by their covers. The 2A3 has a better sound to my ears. Those miniscule watts seem much more powerful in person than you could ever expect. I did read that Dennis Had states a 2A3 based amp is able to put out between 25 and 35 watts during music playback(we don't listen to 8 ohm resistors). The bass of this tube is MUCH better than a 300B. Very well extended and surprisingly tight. Midrange is simply more natural to my ears. Not as in your face. More sunny and laid back. High frequencies are also nice. I plan to buy a 2A3 amp at some point. I am really enamored with them. Now you are not building a good system if you partner either a 2A3 or a 300B to a Thiel or a PSB Gold i. But, if you get a pair of speakers that present quite a benign load to an amp, you may find yourself finally getting off the merry go round of gear(at least for a while). I would like to read the opinions of others regarding this question. As I am interested in seeing if their opinions mirror mine. I respect Dekay's opinion immensely, but it appears we are of different opinions in this issue. No problem. Vanilla and chocolate...
