300B or 845?

Eril, what did you do? In the 1-3/4 years since I posted above, the Quad 989s and ASL 805s have been replaced, first with Eminent Technology 8s and ASL Hurricanes running in triode, and then with DIY, line-array, open-baffle speakers... http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/jeffreybehr/OB%20JG6518%20speakers/12Decfmlisteningpos_800w.jpg ...and 2.5WPC SETs.

My room is largish at c. 3200CF, and I listen at moderate levels, rarely reaching 95dB peaks. I listen to large-scale Classical and film music, and this system sounds simply excellent. The system is triamped so I'm using all of a combined 10 Watts (both channels) from 40 Hz up.

You might consider the Music Reference EM7 amp... http://www.ramlabs-musicreference.com/6EM7-13EM7.html . It retails for $950 but currently it's introductory priced at $850, and there's a return privelege (with a reasonable restocking fee, I believe). Pics are here http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/jeffreybehr/Music%20Reference%20EM7/ .
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Hi, I have the 2A3, 45 and 300B amps, everything depends on your taste, your ear, personally I prefer the 45 and 2A3 on 300B. I have Set Utopia Audio and love the 45 and 2A3, The 2A3 is excellent very balanced in all range bass, middle and louds 300B is excellent in middle and bass, with body and presence . The 45 are magic. Good luck, Martin
www.utopiaudio.com

You already probably figured out that there is no clear and unique answer to your question. It also depends a lot on your taste. And you could see that there are more than 2 options - somebody mentioned also 2A3, which is also a valid option concerning the sensitivity of your speakers.

Generally speaking, 845 are tubes that provide more power than 300B (sometimes 300B's are used as drivers for 845's). This power you do not really need, because your speakers are going to work just fine with SET 300B of about 13 W per channel at 8 ohm. The precondition is of course that the amp has been made decently.

It is true that NOS WE 300B are very expencive. But the good alternative is to go for Chinease copy: TJ 300B, which is very good and costs somewhere about $250 each. Or Svetlana 300B ...

2A3 is also very interesting alternative. It is somewhere about 6W at SE mode and it can sound really magically. Especially with female vocals, acoustic instruments,...

Another alternative would be SET with 6C33. This tube provides healthy 15W/8 ohm in SET mode and it sounds powerful and amazing. BAT, Einstein, Graaf and many others are using this Russian tube.

But there are several reasons why 300B triode is called, for decades now, the queen of all triodes ...

Do any of you think that a 15-20 watt SET would be able to drive a pair of Merlin VSMs (89db and very smooth 8 ohm load)adequately in a 13x18 room? I would like to try SET, I have a SETransistor - Pass XA30.5 - and would like to try a tube SE, but I'm not sure about the power limitations.

Pubul57- I have used two different 300b SET amps in my 14 x 23 x 8.5 LR (with a large archway into a 2 level staircase/entry foyer) w my VSM-Ms. They are very nice for most of what I listen to (singer-songwriter, bluegrass, alt-country, folk, acoustic blues) but if you are looking for near live levels with orchestra or rock, I think you would not be satisfied. They make plenty of volume but when pushed, I do notice a bit of glare or harshness. The 300bs are around 10 watts. BTW, these are back-up integrated amps that I have for other uses. When either my main pre or amp is down, in they go and they are very satisfying. But I do always enjoy it when the VZN-80 goes back in, with 80 wpc.