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Psvane 300-B Tubes ? ? ?

Does anyone out there have any experience with Psvane 300-B MKII or their WE300-B Replica tubes ?  

I found the best sound from initially the Sophia Princess mesh-plate 300-B's, then their Royal Princess 300-B's however I'm definitely NOT happy with their reliability, especially the Royal Princess !  
I had a mesh-plate from new have a glowing spot on the mesh-plate, and they told me it was from sitting on the shelf for over a year !  REALLY ! ? ! ?  And I had two Royal Princess tubes go out with less than 600-hours on them, unfortunately well-past 1-yr. warranty.  Left a bad taste...  I'm NOT going back...  
I've tried EH gold-grid 300-B's, Gold-Lion's, JJ's...  All sound somewhat different but the Sophias sounded the best, however in my experience, reliability is questionable...  Thanks...  John  
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trelja
3,223 posts
 
I served as an importer and reseller of upper end tubes from China...

I preferred both the Shuguang Black Treasure and Psvane 300B tubes over the Sophia Princess (TJ / Tianjin), with the Psvane sounding best.  That said, of the three, the Shuguang Black Treasure offered the most reliability.

BTW, if the sitting on a shelf theory held water, the market for North American and European NOS tubes would obviously not exist
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
As far as reliability goes, I have used the Shuguang Black Treasures in a VAC Ren 30/30 which pushes the output tubes pretty hard and have had no problems.  I really cannot estimate hours reliably, but definitely more than 600 hours and while starting to measure weak, they still auto-bias just fine and sound great. 
kdude66
1,200 posts
 
For sound and so far reliablty, I like the sound of the black treasures and the we300 b replica.

I haven't had much longevity from the Sophia's,300b's,2a3's or there 45's.The sophia's do sound good though.


Best of luck,


Kenny.
gsm18439
895 posts
 
I preferred the sound of the Sophia Royal Princess over the sound of the Black Treasures. However, once I bought a pair of Takatsuki 300b, I stopped using the Royal Princess. Charles (charles1dad) likes his EMLs a lot. Others like the KR Balloons. All three - Takatsuki, EML, and KR - have a track record of reliability, but also have different price points. I have never tried the WE Replicas, but am curious about them as well.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
In terms of sheer sound quality the best I’ve heard in my amplifier (Coincident Frankenstein MK II SET) in no particular order.
EML XLS, Takatsuki, Elrog and KR XLS.
The Elrog proved to be unreliable in my amplifier (supposedly improved now).
The other 3 are quite reliable.

I used the Shuguang Black Treasure 300b for nearly 3 years and  it is a reliable tube. Good sound quality but not the same level as the upper tier tubes mentioned above (not as expensive either). This is a good value/performance choice of 300b.

Psvane makes good quality tubes but I haven’t heard their W.E.Replica 300b.
Charles
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