Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR

Simmo: Amtrans and Sun Audio are near each other. If you do not mind my asking, what price did you pay for the TA-300b pair?

Gsm18439 - drop me an email (add @gmail.com to my username) and I'll let you know

Antigrunge,
You make a good point(regarding what the market will bear).I`ll say this, at least in this case Takatsuki came through with a product that lives up to the high cost.
So often this is`nt the case(particularly high end audio).Every time I listen to my music(very often) I realize this tube was worth it. You could easily spend the cost of these(or far more) tubes on cables/cords and maybe or maybe not get this level of improvement.

Alternatives? theRP will get you close for 1200.00 USD.
Old stock W.E. 2500 AND upwards(may be better? or just different) but no warranty (Takatsuki has a 2 year warranty).Some less expensive tubes sound good but won`t compete at this level.

I assume most folks interested in this thread and own 300b amps fall deep into the pure natural sound-music lover camp(like me). If that`s true then if you want maximun performance from your amplifier this is certainly money(a lot)well spent.Fortunately 300b tubes(in general) have considerable longevity.
Regards,

Another alternative that no one has mentioned is the Psvane WE Tribute 300b that is sold by Grant Fidelity. They are supposed to be a clone.

My Takatsuki's are at the 80 hour mark and continue to improve. This tube does not behave like other power tubes I have owned. Most have a period or a break in cycle at which point the sound is not optimum until a significant amout of hours are logged. These tubes have sounded absolutely stellar right out of the box and continue to improve in my system. Absolutely worth the bucks in my opinion.