Given what's on the market right now, I'd like to see Bottlehead create a mash-up of their Mainline, Stereomour and/or Kaiju amps as 2A3 or 300B beast specifically for headphones. Or perhaps an Elekit designed exclusively for headphones, with no regard for speakers.
Both of these options seem more likely than a Schiit 300B.
I drive fast! I have more speeding tickets than anyone else I have ever met. I have learned over the years that if your car is the color of cement/asphalt then you get seen and stopped less often by those nasty people who want all your money just because you were driving a little fast. My last 2 cars (Subaru WRX and Toyota Tacoma 4x4) are both the exact same shade of dark silver. I haven't had a ticket in a couple years so maybe it is an effective strategy.
Years ago, friend was driving her red Porsche 911 somewhat above the limit in town here, following several other nondescript vehicles going at the same speed. Traffic cop stops her for speeding. She asks "Why, the drivers ahead of me were going as fast." He retorts "Because you look like you can afford the ticket."
All that is true. And there are plenty of others manufacturing 300B HP amps so... but to do it right, as you say, it's gonna cost.
But after 55 years of every other conceivable 9 pin and 8 pin tube design I've experienced, the mystique of the 300B is how I'd like to close out my audiophile career.
Mine is likely closing out with 2A3 amps, everything I read about 300B amps made me feel it would be too far from neutral for me. My DNA Stellaris with a specific set of tubes is just a bit warm, wet out of neutral, fantastic staging, to keep me in space for hours.
From what I've been reading the current crop of top 300B's run the gamut sound-wise.
The Western Electric 300B's (current issue not NOS that run 10 to 20 grand a pair) is closer to that ol' time tube sound I grew up with in the 50's, 60's and into the 70's. Until I experienced the ARC SP3a1 and Dual 79B.
The Takatsuki 300B's are supposed to be extremely linear top to bottom, very little coloration, but with some desirable tube traits but not especially warm in that ol'time way.
And the Elrog300B's might be somewhere in between.
And there is a new player entering the fray, the Audio Note (UK) 4300E / 300B, too new here to be fully vetted at this point but if it pans out it will be a bargain price-wise in 300B world.
As usual, the associated equipment, and personal preferences, and perhaps even preferred music genres, might play a role for each individual listener.
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