2019 300B tubes that are worth the money?

I agree, avoid Sophia, also had a bad experience with them.

@argonsteele Thanks for the tip and review of the PSVane WE 300B replicas. I'm going to try a pair; can't go wrong at that price.

I sell a decent number of Sophia tubes.  In that time, I have had one 274B fail.  It was under warranty and replaced within a few days.  The only thing they asked (KR and Emission Labs ask the same) is that the tube be returned so they can test it.  

I have had exactly one tube fail from each of the three companies I mostly sell (KR, Sophia and Emission Labs) and all three replacements occurred quickly and without issue.  

I have not seen Sophia have a higher failure rate than the European counterparts but, I also have never sold any of the tubes that they used to source from TJ Full Music.  They have shifted suppliers and I believe the net result is a much lower failure rate.  

JJ's are pretty good value for money - I much preferred them to Genelex Gold Lions at about the same price. I decided to go for broke, though, and ordered a set of new Western Electric 300B's made at their new plant in Georgia; should be showing up in a couple of days! 

+1 on Takatsuki 300B

It comes down to your values. I replaced the OEM tubes in my Woo WA5. The difference was very profound. Tubes like Sophia offer an intermediate step up. If you want the best sound your system is capable of, then the Takatsuki are the way to go. But the level of difference will also depend on the rest of your system. If you have a very highly resolving system, the difference will be profound… if not then it will be less.

Also, what improvements would you get elsewhere if you applied $2,000. What is value of $2K to you? I have many interconnects worth more than that… pretty much a no brained for me. They sound glorious.

The fact you are thinking 0f putting some more money into a cartridge… makes me think perhaps you should stick with what you have and take a hard look at your overall system. Maybe read Robert Harleys book on High end Audio and consider the whole system. This might inspire other changes first… or not.

I've had the new Western Electric 300b tubes on my Cayin HA-300 for 6 months, which is just a bit over at $1500, and I think it's worth having. My previous Psvane ACME 300b had one tube that just blew after 1 1/4 years, making it out of warranty.

The WE300b has 5 year warranty which gives me peace of mind. Now on to the sound quality. The Psvane ACME has a bit more air and openess up top, but the WE300b wins out on the liquid and beautifully lush mids and more textured body in the midbass and bass. The ACME has the bass extension, but I did find it a bit thinner than I'd like, where the WE300b feels more impactful without sounding slow. Both have excellent soundstage and instrument separation.

Both tubes needed at least 100 hours to sound really good, and around 200 hours to sound amazing. I feel like I'm rediscovering new and old music again now that my WE300b have reached its peak performance!

My chain is as follows:Custom PC --> Sablon 2020 Panatela Reserva Elite powered USB Cable --> Chord HUGO TT2 --> Morrow Audio MA6 XLR Cable with Furutech CF-602F and 601M Rhodium XLR ends --> Cayin HA-300 DHT 300b Tube Amp (Western Electric 300b + Sylvania 6SN7 3-hole Bad Boy tubes) --> PlusSound X6 balanced cable with gold-plated copper wires and Furutech miniXLR & 4-pin XLR terminations --> Audeze LCD-3 Fazor headphone. PS Audio Stellar Power Plant 3 + Audioquest Thunder 2m power cable for power regeneration.