COINCIDENT FRANKENSTEIN 300B STEREO

Newest owner of a Frankenstein stereo 300B.

Ordered in November, Israel was waiting on a shipment of output transformers from Japan; no, I tried but he wouldn’t tell me which company they were sourced from.

What an emotional ride over the past 2 weeks- 1 week ago I thought I was going to sell it for a quick loss, as it was not sounding very good; sounded fine, but not good. Feeling like all these things I read about Coincident, and this thread, was incorrect. Reality: It is just a $2500 amp, right? All the opinions have exaggerated it’s actual performance. After 10 days of playing I took it out of the system for the weekend and put in the Yamamoto just to hear some quality music. Happy to report after putting it back in for a few more days, and putting in some higher quality tubes: A Mullard over the sovtek GZ34 and Tung Sol VT 229 over the Shuguang 6n9p’s, perhaps the combination of the two, and it is now sounding fantastic! And the tubes have only been in for 1 day.

Yes I know all about burn in, and the Gold Lion 300’s are new too, but I read 20-30 hours for the tubes from most reports, and Israel’s owner’s manual states the amp will sound fantastic from new, but even better after 100 hours- which for me was 1 week. Even still, I was doubting the sound and questioning my purchase as things were still not good enough nearing 2 weeks of play- But all good now!

And some people still argue burn in is not real? Crazy. This has gone from a $1000 amp to a $5000-$7000 amp in sound quality in 2 weeks.

@charles1dad

Not sure how long the 2500.00 introductory price will remain.

And the price has gone up quite a bit, it is now $2500 US (I pay in CDN)

Question: I never had a 300B before, I chose Gold Lion’s as my first pair as I read they are great, especially for the price, and didn’t want to spend the price for WE’s or Takatsuki’s (yet) which are reported to be the best. For those who have the experience with this particular amp are they worth the money?

Hi @mclinnguy 

Which speakers do you use with this amplifier?

@mclinnguy Burn in is very real as you've discovered  I run Coincident Statement pre with custom build 300B monoblocks. I'd expect you'd hear extras boutique 300B tubes bring to the table. I have Psvane Acme and WE's, both far superior to Shuguang Black Treasures.

@alexberger The Horning Eufrodites which are 98db.@1m. Tommy Horning designed and voiced these speakers with his own 300B amp, so one would expect they should excel with this amp, but of course not all 300B's are designed the same- Israel confirmed this amp with its suggested 8 ohm tap works just fine with a 4 ohm speaker. 

@sns 

Those Black Treasures were the other tube I was considering. I flipped a coin and picked the Gold Lions. 

 I have Psvane Acme and WE's, both far superior to Shuguang Black Treasures.

 Thanks- I assumed I would hear this response- darn.  At this point I think I would choose WE over Takatsuki's just because after spending that kind of coin on tubes that 5 year warranty is a huge factor. 

From what I see the WE's are $1500 and the PS Vanes are just under $1000, (Lunar New Year!) do you think the WE are worth the extra $500?