I use Takatsuki 300B. Probably the best sounding. Highly recommended. I’ve used mine for a few hundred hours.
Western Electric 300B problem
So I recently purchased pair of WE300B, Friday night first listen. At start up heard mechanical pinging and popping, pre muted so nothing through speakers, after the pinging and popping ended, pre out of mute heard nothing unusual through speakers. No issues other than blue glow at tops of tube throughout 5 hour listening session. Tonight I power up tubes for second listen, immediately see left monoblock tube goes completely cloudy with blue fog throughout tube, this along with popping, right monoblock tube fine.
So it seems I have gassy tube, lost vacuum already! And here I thought recent improvements with quality control there had solved these issues. Not happy with this purchase, been running Psvane Acme 300B's for nearly 1000 hours with no issues.
- ...
- 29 posts total
I have contacted Upscale, immediate response on a Sunday! Explained the symptoms and sent a photo of tube, Jordan supposed to get back with me tomorrow. WE states returns should go through dealer if purchased at a dealer, returns direct to them for direct sales.
My take on 300B premium tubes based on reviews and individuals experiences is that all have very nice sound quality, all seem satisfactory for users. Reliability is the sole issue I see with them. Question is whether this equipment or tube design issue? |
sorry to hear about your horror story. I have both Takatsuki and EAT 300b’s. My preferred tube is the latter: Built like a tank and in my Wvac EC300b simply the most powerful and dynamic. If WE can’t be bothered to test their tubes before shipping I wouldn’t bother either. Hopefully you get a refund and can move on |
@antigrunge2 WE does test each tube and provides a test certificate with each tube, my test date 9/18/2024 so these quite recent builds. Further, Upscale claims to burn in all power tubes for 72 hours. If this true, I was hearing these tubes with a decent amount of burn in, not fresh out of box as I had assumed.
Having just held both WE and Acme in hand substantial difference in weight, Acme much heavier. Thicker glass and more substantial base accounts for the weight difference. Acme has gold plated pins, WE nickel? |
- 29 posts total