Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR



Which do you prefer; S.E.T. Princess 300B Carbon Plate or KR 300B WE Clone?

I've only experienced NOS 40's/50's WE so my expectations are pretty high. Which do you think captures the essence of the WE most closely? I'm trying to keep the cost down as much as possible so EAT is not an option, as much as I was blown away by their KT88. I considered current WE but they're not in production until Spring 2011.

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sakahara
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Thanks for the Shuguang Treasure source. Much lower prices. Grade B?

TubesUSA is East Coast and PayPal only, but I may end up having to order from them.

Ordering imported tubes always seems to be an issue.
Hi,
Sakahara, you stated in an earlier post that you`re replacing your current speakers. I`d imagine the Tron/Horning pairing sound very good. What are replacing your Horning agathons with?
You can try jacmusic.com, Jac is the man to deal with, however not sure if he going to sell outside of EU, but you can try.
From things I read/heard EML's are not WE's, but thats doesnt mean a bad thing, however depends on amp / set up you use. So far, I am pretty settled with KR's tubular type and AVVT's 32B CL, which I believe would be close to EML's, but not 100% sure about it.
From things I read about the WE's, they are sweet, but modern production tubes, except TJ Globe Mesh and Sophia's Mesh, arent sweet. They are punchy, articulate/tight, with more nutral ( some call flat ) mids, extended with great 3d image and great deep bass. If thats what WE's are, well, you got the winning ticket:-)

I own Cary CAD 300SEI and use full house of ECC33 Mullards Brown base as driver and input and the results are very good. But when I use some other tubes, such as RCA Grey coated, Sylvania Bad Boys or TS Mouse Ears the mids are showing some "weakness", at least in my system. By the way, I use ECC82 Mullards in my CDP as well, all NOS 50's production, so, no muddy stuff here.

One of my hobby mates using EAT 300B's and he is very impressed, but these are like EUR800 a pair here in EU, not particular cheap, but if you are looking for WE replacement you may not going to find any, however most CARY 300SEI users, include me, thinks that Sophia's Mesh are way to go if you are looking for close replica, but than again, in your amp it may be differ sounding.