Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR

Sophia doesn't offer refund.

Looks like I'm stuck with ceramic base.

Who sells the Svetlana 300B? I can't find it, not even on their website. I've heard of AVVT but not familiar with tubes.

Fact is, none of these current 300B's are real (WE) 300B designs, nor can they be. Different time, manufacturing process, materials, design. There wasn't carbon/mesh-plate, globes, XLS,..etc. This is why many customers experience premature failure with their tubes because they don't match the amp. They want extra power, giant globes,..etc and end up burning them out due to incompatibility. I want the closest thing to WE 300B w/o all the glitz.

I feel very sorry, but not for you, for Sophia's "service".

Thanks for sharing this, man, thats sucks, totally. So, tell me, do you still like their kind attitude? Are you kidding me?! No good means full refund, no questions ask, thats how it must be, period.

AVVT is the one man company, which do not in the business anymore for many years, but this guy Alesa Vaic was/is an genius, who couldnt handle the business part, but developed one of the finest modern tubes out there.

You can buy Svetlana's from jacmusic.com, I believe, just send Jac an e-mail, he is one of the best to deal with it, imo.

Like I wrote, if you want WE's, just buy WE's, period. If you cant do that, just compromise, so, maybe KR Balloone's after all?

Just wonder why you sold WE's in the first place?

I agree. The right thing to do is offer customer choice of refund or another replacement. Sophia has been more helpful then most though, but still no excuse. This experience makes me reconsider EML, KR, and Shuguang Treasure. It's a gamble with any current production tube, especially power tubes in my experience. I've had better reliability from 1940's-1950's NOS tubes. And as mentioned before; I can't afford NOS WE 300B now. Had to sell my pair to help get by.

Are you aware of the fact that Sophia introduced a new flagship? For USD 1200 only you will get the best of the best, but if you hurry up for USD 999 its the best deal ever.

I just hope that WE will be in production soon again.

Pretty amazing price. It would make it the most expensive 300b in current production.