Best 300B

Calloway,
Much praise has been wriiten about the Royal Princess. It seems it has serious competition in price and performance from the Takatsuki TA300b made in Japan.

I would love the opprotunuty to compare these two.

Are the Shuguang Black Treasure 300B tubes the same as the Psvane 300B-TII tubes out now?

Also all these different Shuguang tubes drive me nuts. I saw this one too.

Shuguang 300BS-B (replacing 300BA 300B-98B)

I'm hoping since some time has passed since this thread was updated people can share more of their thoughts on the 300B tubes out there.

Jedinite, I recently purchased a pair of Coincident Frankensteins and had an opportunity to audition the Psvane TIIs, Ts, and HiFi 300B tubes. The Ts and TIIs were substantially better than the HiFis, but the difference between the Ts and TIIs was not significant. I was offered the Ts at a discount relative to the TIIs, which was a no brainer. They were subtly different, but I didn't have a clear preference for either, so I went with the Ts based on price.
I was told both the Ts and TIIs were substantially better than the Shuguang Black Treasures.

How the Ts compare to the Sophia RP and Takatsuki 300Bs, I can't say. I asked a fellow whose opinion I respect and he advised sticking with the Ts, which surprised me, in view of the glowing praise you hear regarding the RPs and Takatsukis. Once one gets up to 1K and above for a pair, it gets to be a pretty expensive experiment.

Hi Brownsfan

Thanks for going into detail and explaining your experiences with the PSVane 300B T tubes. I was actually looking into the HiFi 300B tubes and the Shuguang Black Treasure tubes. I'll probably skip the HiFi 300B tubes now. The cheaper Sophia 300Bs interest me but am trying to figure things out what the differences sonically would be between the mesh plates and solid plates. I'm going to keep things under $500 per pair for 300B tubes.

Jedinite24,
These choices are difficult to make without actually hearing them in your own amplifier/system. It sounds like a cop out but there are ever present variables that determine final preference. In my SET I clearly preferred the Shuguang Black Treasure (BT) to the Sophia mesh princess 300b. Yet when Dick Olsher reviewed my amplifier in TAS he had the opposite impression (different system and of course, ears). I've been told that the Psvane Treasure is superior to the Shuguang BT. If so then the Psvane is very good and would rrepresent very good value. Makes me wonder how good the Psvane W.E. Replica 300b must be.
Charles,