Elrog needs to re-establish goodwill. I wouldn't want to be a $1200 beta tester with their history. Elrog should drop their price until their reputation has been rehabilitated.
Elrog 300b's for sale. Your thoughts?
I noticed this morning an add for the new Elrogs. I and many others on the forum ran the experiment when the Elrogs were initially launched. We found the tubes to be superb sonically, but woefully unreliable. In fact, the early failure rate on those tubes was apparently 100%. I and others received replacements that were hand selected for suitability in our particular amps. In fact one individual had 3 pairs fail. In my case, I went so far as to purchase a PS audio power plant, having been assured that limiting incoming voltage to 115V would ensure reasonable lifetime for the Elrogs. Two days ago, one of my replacements failed, after having been nursed along carefully. Honestly, I doubt the tubes had 600 hours on them. So the Psvane T1s went back in and I began the period of mourning for my deceased Elrogs. This morning I awake to the siren song of an ad from a reputable dealer who is announcing availability of the new improved Elrogs with a 1 year warranty. My initial reaction was, "I don't think so. Someone else can run the $1200 experiment. Burned once and lesson learned." But here is the problem. If all of Elrogs former customers take that approach, the new Elrog will also fail even if the tubes are good for 10000 hours, simply because no one will buy them. The tubes are so good that it would be a tragedy if that happened. So the question to all of you who have already been down this road is this? What would it take for you to give these tubes a try again?
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Hi Bill, The following article by the gentleman who founded the company that is producing the new Elrog tubes will be of interest: http://vinylsavor.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-future-of-elrog-tubes.html I note the following statement in a response to someone's comment beneath the article: These are tubes of the latest production with improvements which solved the reliability issue of the filaments in some amps. The tubes now carry a full 1 year warranty also on emission.I suppose that a logical question would be if the improvements that are referred to can be expected to result in any changes in the sonics of the tube, compared to the original. Best regards, -- Al |
Thanks Al. I had previously read the information for which you provided a link. Your question is a good one, and had occurred to me also. I trust that information will be available to us shortly, provided that even 2-3 "beta testers" take the bait. But brf's comment is spot on. The two principals who were responsible for failure of the original company are deeply involved in the current effort. Their reputation is less than stellar. Remember that there was a persistent denial that there was an issue with the tubes. The fault was this amp or that amp, never mind the fact that the tubes apparently failed in every amp they tried. Lots of us will be skeptical of their current claims without empirical substantiation, i.e, we find that people are getting 2-3 years of service out of these tubes. If 90% of there potential customer base waits 3 years the new company will fail. The purpose of this thread is for the new company and the US distributor to gain an understanding of the magnitude of the public relations nightmare they are up against with these tubes. They will need to explain to me why I should take this risk instead of buying, let's say, the excellent sounding and reliable EML 300b's at 60% of the price of the new Elrogs. Sorry, but I can't justify $1200 a year for one pair of tubes no matter how good they sound. I don't expect more than a 1 year warranty under normal circumstances, but this is not a normal circumstance. |
Hi Bill, Well I did indeed have 3 failed attempts with the Elrog 300b and excellent support from George at tubesusa.com, the tube failures sure weren’t his fault. This is a classic example of superb sound vs product unreliability. No doubt about it, the Elrog was stellar in my amplifier. Who wants to be a 1200.00 dollar beta tester? Good question bfr. It’s interesting how we are able to accommodate change over time. I returned to my EML XLS an excellent 300b that I truly enjoy listening to (this is an exceptionally robust and reliable tube). It’s only with direct comparison where I can say that the Elrog is a bit more nuanced and organic thus a bit more emotional. The gap between them is small but detectable. The EML XLS is as dynamic, perhaps more so. Honestly in my particular SET amplifier both tubes (along with the Takatsuki) are wonderful music conveyors. I’d need to know precisely what has been done to improve the durability of the Elrog. A full year warranty for a tube does suggest a high degree of confidence from the manufacturer. Bill I’ll say that I am curious about this new and "improved " version. I’ll read the article posted by Al. I feel no sense of urgency to try the Elrog at the moment. Charles |
Charles, thanks for you comments. I agree. While a 1 year warranty may be more or less standard, in view of the history of the tube, one might have expected a longer warranty as a statement of confidence. I am also troubled by what I read in the material provided by Al, where the statement runs along the lines of correcting the issue that caused failure in some amps. That sounds to me like they are still in denial. The information that I have from my dealer is that the failure rate for his customers was 100% in a variety of amps. He did not have a single customer that did not experience premature failure. Unless I see more, I'm going to have to sit this one out and go with the EML tube. I want the new Elrog to succeed, but I don't need any more weasel words, and I'm not placing a $1200 bet on something that looks like a long shot from my frame of reference. |
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