Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR

western electric 300b's

The Sophia Royal Princess seems over priced to me.
If I'm not mistaken it is a re-labeled TJ Fullmusic 300B SE which goes for $700 on eBay.
Even with shipping in doesn't reach $1,200 so what gives?
Meanwhile Psvane 300B-T which is an improvement over the former Shuguang Treasure Z (as warm and liquid but more sparkle on top, more transparency and better bass control) goes for $510 and KR goes for $525.
Is the Royal Princess that much better? I have some doubts but than we are in the hobby of diminishing returns.
Of course the circuit of the amp and the interaction with the speakers may give an edge to one set of tubes over the other so this discussion becomes somewhat subjective.
Case in mind is a friend of mine heard the TJ Mesh Plate in some SET galore in Hong Kong and thought it was super sweet as output tube but as a driver tube in my amp we both thought that although it was more transparent and airy than the Shuguang Treasure, it was bright, a bit grainy and gave a flatter presentation than the Shuguang Treasure.
The Treasures are not the last word in transparency or air but are very liquid, dense and present very good image depth which is quite seductive.
My latest experience is that the Psvane 300B-T are a noticeable improvement.

Doron,
Thanks very much for your impressions. I use the Shuguang Black Treasure(BT) and love them in my Coicident amplifier. If the Psvane is a step above the BT then I`m interested. Israel Bloom(Coincident) said the BT and Psvane were very close with a minimal edge to the Psvane(could be amplifier dependent). If the Psvane is as you say then 510 dollars is fair IMO.

Are you certain the Royal Princess is just a TJ Full Music SE relabled? Have you personally compared it to the Psvane 300b? If they`re close sonically then the RP is overpriced. Have you any experience with the EML 300b? I`ll say this, the BT in my Frankenstein amp is perhaps the most transparent match I`ve yet heard in a home audio system. If the Psvane tops that then all I can say is wow!

Best Regards,

Charles

Can anyone tell me if the Psvane and or Shuguang bTs are full WE spec compliant and if they can handle the high demands of the VAC Ren series amps?

My pleasure sharing my impressions .
I am not familiar with the Frankenstein amps although heard good things about them. I have a friend with Coincident Super Eclipse III who use to drive them with the same amp I'm using (Heavily modified JAS Array 2.1 300B/805 A2 SET with 45 W per channel used with Joule-Electra LA-100 Mk III preamp) but could not get enough bass (to his taste) from the side firing woofers and now is driving them with with McAlister Audio OTL mono-blocks with 195 W(!) per channel.
An overkill if you ask me but than very airy, open, clean and fast sound. Not really romantic or dense though, given these Coincident are ready intrinsically airy to my taste (pick your poison...).
The Psvane 300B - T which functions as a driver tube in the JAS (drives the output 805), is definitely more transparent than the Treasures.
Regarding Sophia, they are built by the same factory (TJ Fullmusic) with similar construction, under a different name with perhaps better QC and guaranty. Is it worth extra $500? Not to me.
Go ask Sophia themselves and see what they say.
EML might be good but again, ultra expensive and reading between the lines in 6 Moons, it seems like more hifi sounding, clean and fast but perhaps not as lush and liquid as the WE clones.
Knowing the Coincident fast and airy sound I would think it may be too much of a good thing. Personally I would look into beefing the midrange of these speakers which is already fast and transparent, but that's just me.
To summarize : I may be wrong about the EML but it is too expensive of a trial-and-error for me.

Which Coincident are you using (you can email me privately to not hijack this thread).