[leftside]

After 3 months I swapped the Elrog 300B with a pair of 60s vintage Western Electric 300B in Fostex HP-V8 and immediately stunned and immensed in music for hours. While Elrog is the God of current production 300B, the vintage WE300B is simply playing its own game with non-comparable mid and delay with perfectly extended high and low, which is exactly the addictive 300B sound an audiophile will die for.

The current production WE300B is great but the vintage one is legendary and sounds much superior. Understand that finding a good pair at reasonable price is more and more difficult but if you have this luck, don't hesitate and you shall know where all the fames of 300B coming from.

I wonder if the newer 300B just need more hours to break in? I have quite a few tubes, and often the well used tube will sound better than a NOS tube from the same manufacturer/year/factory.

 

[leftside]

Got them in at last! My goodness I had forgotten just how good these Takatsuki’s are! No glow like the Elrog’s though . As has been mentioned previously, slightly drier/analytical sound, but oh so good. They shall be staying in for a while.

I'm also a big fan of the Taks.

 

[ARCXENOS]

Got them in at last! My goodness I had forgotten just how good these Takatsuki’s are! No glow like the Elrog’s though . As has been mentioned previously, slightly drier/analytical sound, but oh so good. They shall be staying in for a while.

Beautiful 6J5GTs too!

I got a quad of raytheon WGTs coming in soon, but I am definitely thinking of getting a less aggresive 300b as well - are takatsukis closer to smoothness than elrogs? I love british valves like you, need more buttery smoothness in my life

 

[JTbbb]

Beautiful 6J5GTs too!

I got a quad of raytheon WGTs coming in soon, but I am definitely thinking of getting a less aggresive 300b as well - are takatsukis closer to smoothness than elrogs? I love british valves like you, need more buttery smoothness in my life

No I wouldn’t say that they are smoother than the Elrog’s. I see you have the ecc32’s, I too have these, which go extremely well the HD800S, but not so well with my Utopia’s, which I see you also have. I find the Brimar CV1988 brown base clear glass go very well with the Utopia’s.

Edit: These Brimars are the predecessor to the Black Glass versions.

 

[normie610]

After 3 months I swapped the Elrog 300B with a pair of 60s vintage Western Electric 300B in Fostex HP-V8 and immediately stunned and immensed in music for hours. While Elrog is the God of current production 300B, the vintage WE300B is simply playing its own game with non-comparable mid and decay with perfectly extended high and low, which is exactly the addictive 300B sound an audiophile will die for.

The current production WE300B is great but the vintage one is legendary and sounds much superior. Understand that finding a good pair at reasonable price is more and more difficult but if you have this luck, don't hesitate and you shall know where all the fames of 300B coming from.

Wow. That’s my holy grail tubes, wish the price isn’t that high hopefully one day I have the courage to buy a pair but for now I need to be content with ER300B and new production WE300B.

Edit: I swapped the Elrogs with WEs this morning and while the sound has a touch less bass quantity, it’s more 3D and holographic, more spacious, notes have more decay and extension and funnily enough, it sounds as if it has better resolution than Elrogs

The last time I used my WEs was with different rectifiers, input tubes and regulators. Perhaps the combo gives a different presentation. I can’t say which one I prefer at this moment.

 

[ARCXENOS]

No I wouldn’t say that they are smoother than the Elrog’s. I see you have the ecc32’s, I too have these, which go extremely well the HD800S, but not so well with my Utopia’s, which I see you also have. I find the Brimar CV1988 brown base clear glass go very well with the Utopia’s.

Edit: These Brimars are the predecessor to the Black Glass versions.

I concur with the ECC32 statement, its fantastic for my Susvara, but too overdone with the Utopia

Maybe the CV1988 after the alternate pair of 300b that I can't decide

 

[CopperFox]

Those look nice. And much cheaper than any of the other new production 300B tubes on the market. Any idea of the reliability?

Well, I can confirm they have not failed in the less than 30 hours that I've used them. However, there are some other models to be found on Aliexpress that are cheaper still.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Those look nice. And much cheaper than any of the other new production 300B tubes on the market. Any idea of the reliability?

Reliability probably depends a lot on where you get them from.

If you have a trustworthy distributor that takes only the higher quality stuff you will probably receive a lot more reliable tubes than you get via Alexpress (which is more of a gamble but it's possible to get good stuff)

I often ask BTB Elektronik (my local Linlai distributor) when they list the new stuff. Usually they reply something along the lines of "when they are reliable enough"

 

[paradoxper]

We need it to complete the trinity. The unattainable TM. Will need to upgrade my sacrifice game. These chickens aren't working out.

@paradoxper Can you regale us with some TM stories? More impressions high priest.

i don't know what more to add. I've found myself pairing the TM with CA-1a and Valkyria which should illuminate its flexibility.
However, I still prefer the ER with TC. This matches my musical involvement of any and at a high technical level.

I finished a robust round of rolling other types included 45, 101D, PX4, PX25, 112A and it only confirmed the Elrog ER is a superior 300B (PX4 is also a vastly better choice) which provides the most complete balance and ticks my box more.

We're teased a 2023 treat if things go well to meet 300B spec.

 

[incredulousity]

Wow. That’s my holy grail tubes, wish the price isn’t that high hopefully one day I have the courage to buy a pair but for now I need to be content with ER300B and new production WE300B.

Edit: I swapped the Elrogs with WEs this morning and while the sound has a touch less bass quantity, it’s more 3D and holographic, more spacious, notes have more decay and extension and funnily enough, it sounds as if it has better resolution than Elrogs

The last time I used my WEs was with different rectifiers, input tubes and regulators. Perhaps the combo gives a different presentation. I can’t say which one I prefer at this moment.

And that is why you have a collection of 300B tubes.

 

[KarlStromberg]

Thanks for your help guys, new toys arrived

 

[nwavesailor]

NICE!!!!

The Elrog's AND metal base 5AR4 / GZ-34 are some of the great ones.

 

[paradoxper]

Thanks for your help guys, new toys arrived

Nods. Have a blast.

 

[leftside]

Has anyone had the opportunity to test the new production tubes likes the Elrog on a decent tube tester like an Amplitrex?

My experience with testing new production tubes is their test results can be disappointing when compared to the NOS versions, but I have to admit I've only tested a few that my friend has. My own Taks test strong.

 

[paradoxper]

Has anyone had the opportunity to test the new production tubes likes the Elrog on a decent tube tester like an Amplitrex?

My experience with testing new production tubes is their test results can be disappointing when compared to the NOS versions, but I have to admit I've only tested a few that my friend has. My own Taks test strong.

I've tested my original Elrog 300B brass base (last of TM's takeover) on my Amplitrex 1000 and they're extraordinarily strong at over 3000 hours.
I should test my ER5U to the Mullard GZ34 but that means I need to put many more hours on the ER5U.