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Current Best Value In A Pair of Quality 300B's?

I am in a unique situation and could use some of your experience and expertise on currently available 300B tubes. I've read some excellent discussions here, but many are somewhat out of date. And availability of some tubes seems to change, over time too. 

My DAC has the capability of using a number of primary tubes. For several  reasons I "suspect" that a pair of good quality 300B's might be exactly what I need. 

Some other owners of the DAC have found 300B's to be just the ticket, others have not, all of which is, of course, system dependent. My issue is that in trying them out to see IF they work for me, I'm hesitant to spend as much as many of the better tubes cost. If they don't work out, I will only be able to sell them, used (if barely) for possibly half of what I paid, if that. For that reason, I am trying to determine what the best value is in a "sleeper" or otherwise overachieving 300B tube to use to test out my potential solution. . 

Of course, things, in the end, are not really even that simple, because IF the 300B's do provide the sound I am looking for, from my DAC, at that point, I will want to upgrade to something in the $850-$1200.00 range for a pair. 

Any thoughts, recommendations and experiences that you have had with 300B's would be appreciated. Thanks. 

nightfall
sns
3,003 posts
 

I recently upgraded to Psvane Acme from Shuguang Black Treasure in my custom built 300B monoblock amps. Acme in different league from Shuguang. Much higher resolving and far more natural timbre. Haven't tried any other premium 300b up to this point, but based on my research and observations of 300B's, I don't think you can go wrong on any of the boutique 300's. Slightly different flavors, all will resolve and have refinement you won't find in lower priced 300.

 

For me it was sort of like throwing darts, whatever came up winner I chose. If reliability paramount, EML XLS and WE only 300B's I''ve yet to see any failures with. The Acmes are really extremely nice tubes, aprox. 75 hours and getting better!

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,446 posts
 

I just ordered WE 300b also.....   im having a 300b built , so why not?

jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 

I finished building a pair of 300B parallel SET monoblocks a few weeks ago. I started with a set of relatively inexpensive Linlai tubes but decided I wanted to really hear what these amps are capable of so I ordered a matched quad set of Western Electric tubes.

I’ve only had them installed for a week, but fresh out of the box, there was no comparison to the cheap tubes. Way more detail and mid-range sweetness. Vocals, guitar, sax, and jazz trumpets sound fabulous.

I have no regrets for the expensive purchase and can’t wait to hear how these sound after a few hundred hours.

nightfall OP
185 posts
 

I appreciate everyone's perspective. However, as I noted before, once I have tried a pair of 300B's in my DAC and IF they provide the sound I want, I'll willingly pay $1000, or a bit more for a pair. However, initially, when I am simply trying them out,  I'm not interested in spending anywhere near that much. Everything that's been mentioned has been in the $1000.00 per pair and up pricing. 

 

There must be some solid values for less money? 

verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio
1,460 posts
 

There is a break between handmade and machine made.  So it is in essence Inexpensive Russian, Chinese and Czech (JJ) vs much more expensive hand made tubes like KR, EML, Elrog, etc…

the best value at the low end is probably the Electro Harmonix 300B.  These are not cheap and will give you a good idea of what a 300B will do in your amp.  

I would expect Tube Depot to have these in-stock.  

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