1. Home
  2. amps-preamps
  3. 1291395778

Favorite 300B: Sophia vs KR


Which do you prefer; S.E.T. Princess 300B Carbon Plate or KR 300B WE Clone?

I've only experienced NOS 40's/50's WE so my expectations are pretty high. Which do you think captures the essence of the WE most closely? I'm trying to keep the cost down as much as possible so EAT is not an option, as much as I was blown away by their KT88. I considered current WE but they're not in production until Spring 2011.

-
sakahara
rgurney
279 posts
 
Sakahara - I've read online that the 'grading' system is hype designed to inflate and justify the higher prices of the "A" tubes. Do a search in the AudioAsylum. If I am not mistaken, Michael Samra has gotten some tubes from GoodComponent and wrote that he thinks they are very good. You don't need a fancy box to listen to the tubes.
maxmad
182 posts
 
I just checked with my buddy and he wrote that EAT would be very close to my AVVT's, so, not sweet baby either.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
12-17-10: Rgurney
Sakahara - I've read online that the 'grading' system is hype designed to inflate and justify the higher prices of the "A" tubes.
I've read that, too, but authored from Chinese tube sellers.

From what I've read on their website, Grant Fidelity tests and matches their Shuguang Treasure tubes to much tighter tolerances than does the Shuguang factory, and thus far I have no reason to doubt them. This may not be a factor in most tube amps, but in some amps like Audio Note parallel SET amps, tight matching is essential. You can read here about the necessity of careful tube matching in Audio Note Kegon and Nero amplifiers.
phaelon
1,038 posts
 
"Thanks for the Shuguang Treasure source. Much lower prices"

Much lower is right. It makes me wonder if the tubes they're selling are intended for export. I've read that Chinese export tubes are held to much more stringent standards.
sakahara OP
181 posts
 
EML 300B vs Shuguang Treasure 300B.

Comments from those who've compared these two in their system?
More to discover