Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR

I think that Sophia push over the top this time, even they are that good, where this greedy attitude are comming from?!

"where this greedy attitude are comming from?!"

I can only imagine that as tube merchants see the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars being spent on the tube amplifiers that their tubes will be used in, and knowing how much influence that the tube has on the amplifier's sound, that they want a piece of that action.

I received a replacement set of Sophia Carbon Princesses that were tested for lower emissions. They are biasing just fine. I wish I could make more appropriate comparisons, but for now, all I can say is that they are significantly more detailed, extended and dynamic than the Golden Dragons that they replaced. That's right out of the box. I was told to give them a hundred hours to break in.

@Phaelon

Good to hear that, keep us informed about the sonic changes, if any. I never tried their carbon's, so, nothing I can say here, but seems that they are less upfront than Princess Mesh's and also warmer?

Hoping that Sakahara gets his good replacements soon, so we may read his impression as well.

THX

Third pair is the charm... so far. I can't comment on the sound at this time because I'm still sorting out which music server to use.

I think the first pair may have been fine but I can't be certain. I replaced another tube along with the Sophia 300B pair and everything sounds stable now. But the second pair definitely had an issue with one tube being at a much lower volume (stayed with tube when swapped between mono blocks).

I just noticed that $1200 Royal Princess. Everyone wants in on the high-priced 300B tube market. Each brand trying to out do the other. The EAT 300B is also $1200. Wasn't the VIAC AVVT also?