Elrog 300B vs Takatsuki 300B tubes

Bhchung,
I concur with your comparison/results. The Takatsuki isn't polite in my system, in fact it's quite dynamic. The Elrog is however more dynamic,vivid and livelier sounding in my system. The Elrog is said to have a lower "amplifying factor" compared to other 300b tubes. Yet when actually listening to them the sound is more authoritative, bigger/bolder(in a realistic sense) with superior nuance retrieval. I'd expect the Orangutan to be an excellent match with your Line Magnetic amplifier.

Takatsuki needs 150 hours burn in according to web knowledge. Up until 60-70 hours Takatsuki may sound nothing special compared to burned in great tubes, some say 100 hours.
BTW, what's recommended burn in for Elrog?

Update,
I was deep in emotional musical bliss the other night when I suddenly lost sound in my right channel. No smoke,noise or drama, just no sound. I swapped the Elrogs left to right and there was no left channel sound. So one of the Elrogs failed. I spoke with George Lenz at tubesusa.com. The Elrogs are within their 6 month warranty period.George was very responsive(as he's been in the past). I'll return the tubes tomorrow and wait for the replacements.

Well stuff happens. I had to replace my original pair of Takatsuki after about 1 year(they have a 2 year warranty). Takatsuki said my case was very rare. I hope this is just an aberration and the replacement Elrogs are reliable. This tube is simply fabulous to listen to. I haven't lost faith. In the meanwhile I'll enjoy my warhorse EML XLS. It's a change from sublime to "merely" excellent sound.As a tube amplifier lover for 2 decades these type of episodes have been rare thankfully. Until I find a transistor amp that equals my SET experience I'm staying put and accept the fact that nothing is perfect.

Charles,

I recently experienced a major failure with an Elrog 211 tube in my Coincident Dragons. I am starting to wonder about the reliability of Elrog tubes.

Sorry to hear about that. I suffered no damage fortunately. I put my EMLs in the amplifier and have music again. If the replacement Elrogs fail I'm just going to stick with EML and Takatsuki. With Elrog's long history of making military spec tubes in Europe these "audio" tubes should be no problem to pull off(one would think). It is such a fine sounding tube but that's not enough if you can not depend on them to last. The EML so far for me seem bulletproof in comparison. Time will tell. I must say that the EML XLS is sounding "very good" right now. The Elrog is even better but it certainly doesn't embarrass the EML.
Charles,