[imp96]

Does anyone know where to buy these new from? Also are they better then the Royal Princess?

 

[isquirrel]

  Does anyone know where to buy these new from? Also are they better then the Royal Princess?

Have some 300B's and 274B's on their way. Have SERP's & KR's so will compare.
 
Price Japan is your best bet.
 
http://www.pricejapan.com/front/e_good_info.php?code=1255&category=17

 

[Big Stu]

I tried the Royal Princess's and yes they did sound great but they kept on failing in my amp, they're very sensitive to the voltage run through them.
I managed to get hold of a lightly used set of the Takatsuki's and holy hell they're good, I couldn't go back to anything else now.
Bearing in mind I've also run 2 pairs of the Western Electrics which are also great.
The Takatsuki's are less romantic than the Royals and a little less rich then the WE's but for me they're perfect
 
Hope that helps

 

[isquirrel]

  I tried the Royal Princess's and yes they did sound great but they kept on failing in my amp, they're very sensitive to the voltage run through them.
I managed to get hold of a lightly used set of the Takatsuki's and holy hell they're good, I couldn't go back to anything else now.
Bearing in mind I've also run 2 pairs of the Western Electrics which are also great.
The Takatsuki's are less romantic than the Royals and a little less rich then the WE's but for me they're perfect
 
Hope that helps

Great news, thank you, mine are on the way with the 274B's have you heard them?
 
Do your Takatsuki's have the white or black base?

 

[Big Stu]

Mine have the black base which I think are the later ones, they had about 250 hrs on them.
I was running a pair of EH 300b's that I was using as temporary tubes after the Royals blew on me for the 4th time.
I was never happy with the EH's but when I got the Takatsuki's they simply crushed them I'll even pay full price next time if I have to!

 

[isquirrel]

Can you describe more about the Takatsukis sound please.
 
How does the emotion compare to the SERP's is the sound rich - lean or neutral?
 
How is their bass performance compared to the SERP's?
 
Thank you 

 

[Big Stu]

Here's my personal thoughts, don't forget we all hear things differently
 
Royal Princess's: The had great clarity and air and a real delicacy to the sound. Nicely extended extremes but still sounding 'of a piece'. The problem I had, the same as a few other people, is that they aren't engineered to take the normal voltage of a 300B tube so I had to give up on them as they kept on failing.
 
Western Electrics: Very rich colourful sound, not as an extended range as the RP's but very musical so you tended not to notice.
 
Takatsuki's: Basically a combination of the twoThey sound very musical with great 3dness and most of the RP's air, you really see 'into' a recording and I've played older albums and they sound quite different to what I remember.
 
Bass is good but I find that's also very much a function of the amp as well and my Border Patrol has always been very good at this. I've never been one of those 'it has to be valves and ss stinks guy' and I don't actually like the old school  traditional 'valve sound'. But this amp and these tubes simply make music
 
Hope that helps

 

[imp96]

Do you guys have any experience with the Takatsuki 274B.I am thinking of getting them but I dont know how they compare to ther tubes in that class.

 

[Big Stu]

No sorry no experience with those

 

[isquirrel]

Do you guys have any experience with the Takatsuki 274B.I am thinking of getting them but I dont know how they compare to ther tubes in that class.

No experience, have some coming soon, will report then.