[krude]

I hear you. If you're the kind of person who is always hunting for a different sound, then at some point (no matter what tube amp you have) you will probably spend more money on the tubes than on the amp. Being a 300B amp just magnifies the costs, when a budget pair of 300Bs costs $400 USD. The 22DE4s are still cheap, but it's a matter of finding them.

While I don't believe in burn in on SS or cables that others do, I do believe in burn in on tubes and to a lesser extent the drivers on headphones. I'm a man of contradictions.

I would get to that 200-hour mark before making a choice.

I personally own both with the Bliss being my SS of choice. I switch back and forth depending on the headphone, mood or just the time of day. It's a nice choice to have, but I know it's not a choice everyone can have or afford. I remember starting my career in IT paying rent, saving for a house, and family. Luxuries like audio setups were just dreams.

Even now I will not go completely nuts buying 10k gear, because I'm thinking of retirement in 10 to 15 years.

One day though I will win with a Lottery quick pick.

We're in the same exact same boat

Btw rolling totl 300b is still cheaper than rolling totl SS amps

 

[smodtactical]

What do you not like about the way it sounds now? What are you trying to improve?

I do like the sound of this amplifier but the Delta between my modified bottlehead crack and the cayin isn't as big as I expected. I'm considering Also getting other amplifiers and then doing a shootout to really know where this amplifier stands.

 

[smodtactical]

I just watched a YouTube short with DMS and saw that he had atrium and an audio Gd amp and a pretty basic seeming dac and it made me think to myself maybe I'm really overdoing this I should just grab an atrium and use the stuff I already have... audio gd he9, bhc etc. The headphone amplifier world is so much harder to deal with than the speaker amplifier world

 

[ArkNerevar]

A tube amp is something you buy with the full knowledge that you will tube roll with it, that's kinda the point really, you are not going to get the top performance from it unless you roll from the stock tubes, even just changing the drivers from the totally mediocre modern productions to some respectable NOS (it doesn't need to be some super high end version) will net you a massive improvement.

If you don't want to tube roll and that's totally your prerogative, if you simply don't want to deal with all of it, then SS amps exist for that reason, its sound is at it comes, no modification needed.

 

[ArkNerevar]

I just watched a YouTube short with DMS and saw that he had atrium and an audio Gd amp and a pretty basic seeming dac and it made me think to myself maybe I'm really overdoing this I should just grab an atrium and use the stuff I already have... audio gd he9, bhc etc. The headphone amplifier world is so much harder to deal with than the speaker amplifier world

That's something else entirely, at what point are you "overdoing" it? Well, how long is a piece of string?

I can plug my ZMFs into my portable OTG setup and get a pretty good sound that you can still enjoy, does that mean with my desktop amps I am overdoing it? I don't think so, what's good gets even better, you will have to judge for yourself how far you want to take it, as much as I enjoy Goldensounds opinions (and I do) you shouldn't blindly follow what he's saying (or any other reviewer).

Oh and having watched my father, an old time 2 channel Audiophile and his setup for many years now, I can honestly say that we have it way WAAAAY easier, think about this, do you have to worry about your room? Or with a very few oddities aside the power draw of your headphones? and it's sensitivity? We have it much simpler than them.

 

[smodtactical]

A tube amp is something you buy with the full knowledge that you will tube roll with it, that's kinda the point really, you are not going to get the top performance from it unless you roll from the stock tubes, even just changing the drivers from the totally mediocre modern productions to some respectable NOS (it doesn't need to be some super high end version) will net you a massive improvement.

If you don't want to tube roll and that's totally your prerogative, if you simply don't want to deal with all of it, then SS amps exist for that reason, its sound is at it comes, no modification needed.

I'm not against spending a few hundred on input glass but spending $3k on we300b is nothing to sneeze at for me personally

I just thought stock performance would be further away from my modded crack.

 

[smodtactical]

That's something else entirely, at what point are you "overdoing" it? Well, how long is a piece of string?

I can plug my ZMFs into my portable OTG setup and get a pretty good sound that you can still enjoy, does that mean with my desktop amps I am overdoing it? I don't think so, what's good gets even better, you will have to judge for yourself how far you want to take it, as much as I enjoy Goldensounds opinions (and I do) you shouldn't blindly follow what he's saying (or any other reviewer).

Oh and having watched my father, an old time 2 channel Audiophile and his setup for many years now, I can honestly say that we have it way WAAAAY easier, think about this, do you have to worry about your room? Or with a very few oddities aside the power draw of your headphones? and it's sensitivity? We have it much simpler than them.

Honestly I find 2 channel way easier to deal with then finding a great tube head amp.

Vintage eddie current ? Almost impossible to get.
Dna ? 1 year wait meh.
Envy, Wa23 ? Maybe but worth the cash I dunno ?
Custom builders? Oliver doesn't like headphones, Radu and aric I heard mixed things.

I am going to probably build an aegis.

For 2 channel I just buy cj and boom incredible sound and I'm on my way. Don't like cj? There's a metric crap ton of other options.. audio note, arc, vac, allnic, shindo, kondo etc etc.

In talking to some people with 'end game' tube amps they end up buying an interstage ec mk iv and then mod it with monolith and electraprint silver opts. When I saw l0rdgwyns air universe and air mountain amps it seemed to be what I was looking for but he's not able to release the design plans.


Anyway I'll keep listening to the ha300.

 

[steve468]

I'm not against spending a few hundred on input glass but spending $3k on we300b is nothing to sneeze at for me personally

I just thought stock performance would be further away from my modded crack.

I had a Crackatwoa when I got my HA-300, having owned a Crack before that. And yeah, Bottlehead makes some GREAT amps (or more accurately makes a great pile of parts that YOU make into a great amp!). But top of the line tubes really do make that much difference. And I personally came to enjoy the hunt for rare and interesting tubes, which helps. If it’s not worth the cost and effort, that’s understandable. But the HA-300 can get much better than stock.

 

[smodtactical]

I appreciate you all sharing your experiences.

 

[ArkNerevar]

I'm not against spending a few hundred on input glass but spending $3k on we300b is nothing to sneeze at for me personally

I just thought stock performance would be further away from my modded crack.

You don't have to go for the WEs, even more humble 300B upgrades like Psvanes will give you a noticeable improvement but I don't even recommend the Psvanes, I mean you can if you don't want to spend more but what I would now suggest is the EML, it's in the same league as WEs but quite a bit cheaper.

At this price point (around $1K) you have a few other options as well, Kron Audio, EAT, Living Voice and higher grade Psvanes & LinLai, all these are in the same league as the WE in quality overall while also offering a different sound and cheaper, you have to pay simply for it being a Western Electrics.

I would strongly recommend the NOS driver tubes, give a massive upgrade and be cheaper and much easier to roll.

 

[idairyou]

I just watched a YouTube short with DMS and saw that he had atrium and an audio Gd amp and a pretty basic seeming dac and it made me think to myself maybe I'm really overdoing this I should just grab an atrium and use the stuff I already have... audio gd he9, bhc etc. The headphone amplifier world is so much harder to deal with than the speaker amplifier world

I say if you want to go basic then go with a DAC/Amp combo. I whole heartedly recommend Burson Audio's Conductor 3XP or 3XR. They are some of the best in ESS implementations, and you can OpAmp roll (Much cheaper than tube rolling). I still run the Soloist 3XP at work and it served as my main desktop amp for a couple of years, and I was never unhappy with it. Both paired well with my Caldera and AO.

I personally would stay away from Topping and SMSL. Their THX/Nested feedback implementations are clinical and boring with no soundstage, at least for me. If you go THX then go Fiio, they know how to do it right and the K19 has been getting good reviews so far.

I say if there is some buyer's remorse (I get it, 4k is no joke) on the 300MKII then building an Aegis may be the way to go.

 

[paradoxper]

Also is gold lion decent in its own right ?

Don't do it. All the other 300B's sound quite bad compared to what the WE300B is.
The Elrogs are a step up in technicalities and if you find that to your liking, the TM300B is quite a bit better than either ER or Mo variant.

The only quick-pick, if you'd even like its nature is the AN4300E which is somewhat of a Elrog-lite.

 

[smodtactical]

Don't do it. All the other 300B's sound quite bad compared to what the WE300B is.
The Elrogs are a step up in technicalities and if you find that to your liking, the TM300B is quite a bit better than either ER or Mo variant.

The only quick-pick, if you'd even like its nature is the AN4300E which is somewhat of a Elrog-lite.

When you say don't do it do you mean buy gold lion? I already have them as stock with this 300b amp.

I had elrog in my old elekit tu8600 and found it a bit too bright and analytical for my taste. I am looking for a wetter more bloomy sound.

 

[smodtactical]

I say if you want to go basic then go with a DAC/Amp combo. I whole heartedly recommend Burson Audio's Conductor 3XP or 3XR. They are some of the best in ESS implementations, and you can OpAmp roll (Much cheaper than tube rolling). I still run the Soloist 3XP at work and it served as my main desktop amp for a couple of years, and I was never unhappy with it. Both paired well with my Caldera and AO.

I personally would stay away from Topping and SMSL. Their THX/Nested feedback implementations are clinical and boring with no soundstage, at least for me. If you go THX then go Fiio, they know how to do it right and the K19 has been getting good reviews so far.

I say if there is some buyer's remorse (I get it, 4k is no joke) on the 300MKII then building an Aegis may be the way to go.

Well if I wanted to go basic I was thinking of just sticking to my bottlehead crack + audio gd he9. And go back to my North star 192 dac.

Or... I could take the red pill and see how deep this rabbit hole goes.

 

[paradoxper]

When you say don't do it do you mean buy gold lion? I already have them as stock with this 300b amp.

I had elrog in my old elekit tu8600 and found it a bit too bright and analytical for my taste. I am looking for a wetter more bloomy sound.

If you want more wet and bloomy, you are going to lose transparency.

In that case, ACME is a good candidate.

The rest i.e. GL, Psvane and every other 1. Relabel and 2. WE-clone are bad. They're all the same cycled-factory.

You'd be better off with the 45 tube with the caveat no planar drive.