Just wondering if the Web site will be updated soon?
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! 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 just passed the 1 year mark for my Elrog 300B tubes. I will admit that I have also been running the EML 300BXLS in my Art Audio Diavolo 300b SET Copper Reference amplifier as well. So I can say they have about 1000 hours on the Elrogs. Regarding sound quality, I enjoy both tubes equally and wouldn’t say one is particularly better, but the Elrog is a tad smoother, slightly more euphonic, and a tad less dynamic. EML 300bxls comes across as more dynamic and neutral sounding to my ears in comparison. I’m splitting hairs here as they both sound much more alike than different which surprises me as they are constructed differently. They are both superbly made tubes with excellent construction and looks, but the EML 300bxls are structurally built more robustly and are beefier in looks and stature whereas the Elrog feels a bit more delicate, but the Elrog probably would win a beauty content based on looks and that beautiful glow that you won’t get from the EML. The real question is would I buy them again. Well, at their current prices ($1455), which is more than I paid a year ago, I will not be reinvesting in them because they have priced themselves out of the market imho. They simply aren’t worth the premium for that subtle of a difference. The EMLs have a much better warranty, proven reliability, and a much more affordable price point at around ~$900. More importantly, and correct me if I am wrong, but running a 300bxls at 8wpc should probably last significantly longer than a normal 300b as it’s designed to put out more wattage and they are basically loafing in my amp’s standard 350v/75ma voltage mode. If I flick a switch I installed into my amplifier it switches to the higher 450v voltage transformer windings. I then just tweak the auto-bias circuit pots from 75ma to 110ma & I get about 13wpc which is an added bonus and a very noticeable improvement in performance for certain types of large scale music that the higher wpc output setting does benefit from. |
- 80 posts total