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Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR


Which do you prefer; S.E.T. Princess 300B Carbon Plate or KR 300B WE Clone?

I've only experienced NOS 40's/50's WE so my expectations are pretty high. Which do you think captures the essence of the WE most closely? I'm trying to keep the cost down as much as possible so EAT is not an option, as much as I was blown away by their KT88. I considered current WE but they're not in production until Spring 2011.

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sakahara
phaelon
1,049 posts
 
Charles1dad, I actually feel sorry for my tech when he goes into detailed explanations with me. But he has worked with some very high end amp designers. What I did take away from our conversation is that it is enough that the demand the two designs place on the tube is different; regardless of which is more demanding.
ladavid
79 posts
 
I ordered 4 Shuguang Treasures for my amp. Pricey but grade b tubes came to $700 for the four. This is the down side to 300b amps is that a) the tubes do make a significant difference and b) you pay almost as much as the amp for good tubes. My new amp is a Mactone so a little more than the the price of tubes but seems to be all about the quality of the tubes with 300b amps. Will be interesting to see if the quality tubes make as good a difference with my push pull setup as they did when I upgraded tubes for my 300b set.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Ladavid,
If you find the time, I would appreciate you posting your thoughts on these tubes in the PP amp compared to use in your SET amp. I agree 300b tubes are`nt cheap but they outlast most pentode type tubes and IMO sound better if the amp is up to snuff.
ladavid
79 posts
 
Two more things about 300bs:

1. by all accounts these new Treasures take a ton of hours to break in - like don't even listen seriously for 100 hours so Charles1's dad might be a bit before I am back but this is my intent. Hoping the upgraded tubes sees the amp jump forward in significant ways

2. counter intuitive one is that I swapped out my high efficiency Audio Note E's for low efficiency Ellis 1801's and the Ellis' just sing with this amp and the EH tubes. Almost like the Audio Notes are too revealing of the flaws in the 300b tubes...so would I expect the opposite in that I might not notice much difference with the Treasures on the 83db Ellis' but should be a wow with the Audio Notes. Curious.
phaelon
1,049 posts
 
"so would I expect the opposite in that I might not notice much difference with the Treasures on the 83db Ellis' but should be a wow with the Audio Notes. Curious.”

That’s a distinct possibility. A more revealing speaker should be more revealing of upstream improvements.
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