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?
brownsfan
I have had Thomas's new 300b's in my Manley Neo Classic Pre for over a month now.  Within one day of listening to them I ordered another pair.  I can't say enough about Thomas's help and Mr/ Lenz's great customer service. I can also say these tubes don't need any real break in period compared to the others that I have used. I own many -both chinese we300b 1:1 models (psvane and shungyang), Gold Lion 300b, EML, Western Electric 300b (68), Takatsuki TA-300B.

I replaced my Takatsuki TA-300B's and I prefer the sound of the Elrog 300b by a . Now theTakatsuki is a great sounding tube and was my favorite until the Elrog ..yes including the original Western Electrics.  

IMO the Elrog is not yet another 300b clone.  This tube is very different and sounds more modern and defiantly less pillowy on the bottom end.  Transients are much faster and in genera the tube is a joy to listen to.

Thomas, thank you for acquiring Elrog and making the changes you have.  I hope to have you build me a new archiving pre for my turntables that bests the Manley Steelhead I am using now. Also, can you start making some Elrog t-shirts already? 


(yes I am now an Elrog fanboy)








Hi!


Thanks a lot for your feedback and sound description. T-shirts will be made  :-)
We will have them for the High End show in Munich this May. Anybody who plans to visit the Munich show, you can visit us in room F231e


Best regards

Thomas
Hi!

I hope to have the website updated by end of the month. We are totally busy with production catching up with demand and development of a new tube type to be launched at the High End fair in Munich in May. So the web site had to wait. But there are regular updates on my blog and I will keep posting about the tubes and manufacturing process. See here:

http://vinylsavor.blogspot.com/search/label/ELROG

BR

Thomas
I have interest in purchasing the Elrog 300Bs. Have there been any other experiences since the last glowing post by diminishing_returns who surprisingly has that one and only post on audiogon? Have the reliability issues been ironed out - any user experiences to share?