Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR

sakahara,
The statement from the tube amp designer sure makes him seem misinformed and ignorant, Such strong opinions on tubes he has`nt heard and sweeping stereotypes regarding chinese products, so everything produced in china is bad? I hope his amps are better thoughout than his foolish conclusions regarding 300b tubes. There are numerous posts on this site by 300b amp owners of many different brands who have been very pleased with the better quaility chinese tubes from Shuguang, TJ Full Music Sophia etc.

Who has the best price for EML 300B?

Sakahara, which EML 300b are you looking at?

There is a huge difference in quality control between cheap TJ's or others and say Sophia's. Even they both comming from out of TJ factory doesnt mean they are the same quality or even construction.
I have had Sophia's Mesh Princess and my expirience with them is nothing but good. Sound sig is something else and thats where your own ears must tell you what ever you like them or not, but technicaly they were good, kept the bias at the level, every time I checked.
As far as my 300B tubes rolling goes, got the feeling that there are no perfect tubes around, otherwise who would buy others. Another thing is, what they call Mesh, all Chinees makers include Sophia's, arent real Mesh and the only real thing are EML's, but like I wrote, damn thing about them is that they can not be used on every 300B amp ( cos of plates voltage differences, I believe ), so, before you do that, just check with official dealer about your amp specifications. I own Cary CAD 300B SEI and, according to the EML, cant use them and thats my huge freaking frustration, cos I think, possible, they are the best Mesh's around.
Another option could be EAT, which are slightly expensiver than EML's and much more expensiver than Sophia's, but from a very good source I understood that they are very, very good.

Phaelon: I'm looking at the EML 300B.

I want 300B tubes that are as close to the original - WE. None of this Super Sized Globe Mesh XLS...... This is why so many 300B tubes fail - they're not compatible contrary to manufactures claims.

I'm well aware what my SET monoblocks need. I had NOS WE and they were sweeeeet. But I'm on a tight budget now. I'd gladly pick up used NOS WE, or even used or new current production but there's none to be found. I'm not paying $2K for latest WE production.