Sophia 300B vs Jeff Korneff 45 Amp

Hi audiofeil,

I was under the impression the Tome Evans Linear was a single ended amp. In fact I would go as far as saying he said it himself to me himself on the phone. But I will not argue the point and I bow to your knowledge of such things. I have no axe to grind.

The Tom Evans is still one of the finer amps I have had. I doubt many would dislike it apart from its bread bin appearance. It has the noise floor and speed of an ICE power amp, but with harmonic textures left in tact. I believe there is a special edition finish which is better looking if that matters to you.

I can say my 45 amp is an SET ;)

The 45 is one of the best sounding SET tubes. It is partially because the tube is very linear and possibly because it is much easier to build wide-bandwidth output transformers for low-power SET.

A 300B - almost any - with some somewhat thicker, slower, and less extended than a good 45. And the Korneff amp is one of the very best. I have not heard better. I prefer it ultimately to the Yamamoto.

This may not be quite true for extremely expensive 300B SET amps. Certainly you will need to spend much more money to get the transparency, speed, and extension the 45 will give you.

However, while a 45 will play your speakers quite well, at loud volumes it will suffer dynamically in comparison.

Still, I'd go with the 45. I've had K-horns and Fortes.

Chadeffect,
By definition an SET uses one output tube i.e. 2A3, 45, 50, 300B, etc. per channel.

The Linear A is a single ended, Class A, ultralinear stereo amp. It employs 4 tubes per channel.

Perhaps you misunderstood what Tom was saying.

Dealer disclaimer

Hi Audiofeil,

thanks for clearing it up. It is quite possible I misunderstood what Tom was saying. But what I did take from the conversation with him was the way the tubes are implemented was quite novel. A nice chap and fabulous amp.

To get back on message I would agree with Paulfolbrecht. I have tried and heard some very expensive 300B amps and I would still go as far to say that a good 45 prevails in terms of naturalness and extension. I have a modded Yamamoto A08s with EML tubes, and I spent time with Welbourne Labs star chief.

With a 300B (and I have had the 300B XLS in KR amps along with the usual 300B Audio note amps etc) my Trios demonstrated amazing and impressive dynamic contrast and weight, but somehow it always brought attention to itself. I found that 300B thickness masked important information.

The 45 amps I have tried just seemed to get out of the way and still had enough contrast and weight with superior PRAT. Maybe not quite as pumped up. This will always be system dependent and down to your personal taste. Again ultimately either path you choose will be fine and hopefully you will be listening to music not your hifi. Just make sure you get some good modern tubes whichever way you go.

Chadeffect,
I think you've characterized the 300B accurately. It's a wonderful tube if mid-range and warmth is your deal.

Personally, and provided the speaker is amplifier friendly, I prefer the 45, 50, PX-25, and 2A3 in that order.

YMMV