Supposed NOS I take your point. They rarely really are unused when they say so on eBay or anywhere else.
However, after decades of using valves/tubes, the best new production ones simply cost more than is justified relative to decent condition NOS tubes. And the best of the new production ones aren't generally better and in a lot of cases can't match the best old production types.
In my experience that's just a fact. I haven't got a new production triode that betters my fave old production efforts. And I have bought quite a few new types. They look prettier for the most part, but they haven't got what it takes to be the best.
While i agree that, in general, NOS tubes best new production, the lack of availability and, at times, reliability of those tubes makes new production desirable. For example, I really like RD27AS tubes but the pair I have is noisy and I can’t find another. If you can’t buy a tube it doesn’t matter that it sounds great.
Make sure you have an eBay search set up and a pair will pop up eventually. It could take months, though.
I do understand why people buy new. I do it myself. Less so recently though TBH.
That said the KR and EML tubes I have bought new really haven't measured that well on my tester. Which is extremely disappointing. I don't like that fact their boxes aren't sealed. It inspires a lack of trust and enables the new tubes you have supposedly bought to have been long term demos without you knowing.
Not saying that's always the case. But I for one don't like it.
The NOS price versus new differential is insane in some cases. I can have 5 NOS pairs of, say, VT-25 for the price of some WE 300Bs.
The WE 300b quad I have is exemplary but requires a lot of break in. I have around 250 hrs now.
Over the past couple days have rolled Philco ST shaped 01a, RCA ST shaped 112a, and National Union ST shaped 45s in my Lampi B7. The WE 300bs went back in-and with relief -to hear the beautiful music again.
If you have heard WE300B of different production years from now back to the 30's, you will hear obvious different sounds. The modern ones offer a modern type sound where details and staging are more exposed. They have no magic of tone of the very rare earlier production year ones. Some will also say the older ones are color once they hear. That sonic property imo is what makes the WE300 famous for. It sounds very human to me. It does not expose sound and increase your hearing of details. There is a more natural shading. You have to give more attention to hearing something to hear that something. Is the new ones worth the money. I think if they sound better than other brands and you like the sound then they worth the money. Nothing comes at reasonable price these days. The most sought after 300B is the engraved one. That is already costing around $15,000 per pair (more in asia) if you can find one. The true holy grail is the 300A which is double price of the engraved 300B. Now a few thousand bucks for new 300b could sounds cheap.
My new WE300b quad just keeps getting better. They take a long time for break in -and in a Lampi Dac I think longer -because they aren’t run as hard.
I will be getting a matched quad of RK 242s to compare in a mos or so- but so far the new WE300bs have been my favorite-very balanced top to bottom, and very natural tone and midrange.
I will never likely hear a matched quad of vintage WE300bs in my DAC. I do have a quad of vintage 50’s WE101fa’s- prefer the new WE300bs.
That was so tough to decide. I would have to listen again and again but at first blush...
AN special PSVANE
Tak
0ld WE
No particular order. I would love to know the results of the battle.
I have tried full music 300b, psvane we replica 300b, psvane we replica 300b+, psvane acme 300b and then the new production we 300b. Each step was a step upwards for me however between acme and we there is a catch and one can choose one over another. Acme is great and has very good top end, silky yet extended, a floaty feeling but new we has better midbass attack and better midrange holography and tone yet the top end is not as silky or extended sounding. When I heard new we 300b, there is nothing missing from the top end, it is just that the acme sounds more special there, like the difference between a 45 tube and 300b, acme 300b top end sounds more like a 45 tube in a good way. Overall, I preferred the new we300b and it has been getting better especially in the first 50 hours, stabilized and good sounding.
Big fan of the new WE300B here. I personally never loved the sound of the EML (although they are built like absolute tanks and probably will last forever), Elrog is an interesting design but a little sterile sounding and little like a mini-transmitter tube in character (I have not heard the Moly plate yet). Takatsuki is great too, but I think the WE has the same magic but with a bit more weight to the sound.
For reference, my test rigs were my own design 300B amp (10Y interstage driving the 300B) and a very simple 6SN7/300B amp made by Zaika. I think all these tubes are so relatively close a lot comes down to personal taste and the overall system.
I have a pair of Dec 2021 production WE 300b and they sound great. I was afraid they would change the recipe down the road or for some reason be hard to get so I bought a spare pair. Beautiful tone and clarity. My first experience with DHT and it's been a good one.
I don't think you can always count on them honouring their warranty! What if the failure is blamed on the amp? How this would be determined I don't know but it is an easy out for the tube manufacturer. Possible of course so it appears I am out of luck. This was my experience!
There haven't been many recent comments. What are people finding?
I have a pair in my Deja vu push pull amps with vintage Chicago output transformers. They ae far better than any others I've heard and still breaking in.
I don't think you can always count on them honouring their warranty! What if the failure is blamed on the amp? How this would be determined I don't know but it is an easy out for the tube manufacturer. Possible of course so it appears I am out of luck. This was my experience!
There haven't been many recent comments. What are people finding?
Sadly that is the case, they are not honouring their warranty for me!
I purchased the WE 300b new and had run them for around 100 hrs in my MasterSound Compact 300b. They performed very well and were a definite upgrade on tubes like the Gold Lion. As I was planning to purchase a Shindo Cortese I took the Western Electrics out to save them for that amp.
At that point I reinstalled and rebiased my Gold Lions in the MasterSound and set the WE 30Ob aside. A few weeks later one of the Gold Lions failed and apparently took out a fuse in the MasterSound as it would not play. I took the amp to a local Red Seal technician. He replaced the fuse and checked over the amp and his feeling was that the amp was fine and the Gold Lion tube was the issue. Just to make sure I asked him to play the Mastersound in his shop for a week before I took it back. He did so and as everything was working fine I had him put the WE 300b back in the MasterSound.
A friend had been wanting to listen to the MasterSound in his system. As the amp is heavy rather than move it twice I took it from the tech and installed it in my friend's system. We had been listening for about half an hour when I noticed one of the WE tubes turning a very bright blue, sensing this was not right I rushed over and shut off everything. The WE always had a nice bluish tinge to them but in this case it was quite spectacular.
Any way back to the tech. There was no fuse issue this time and the tech diagnosed the problem as tube failure. While only one turned that spectacular blue testing showed that both tubes were unusable. Yet another set of tubes was installed and I had the tech run the amp for a week before I would take it back. I reinstalled it in my system and ran the MasterSound for a better part of a month with no issues. As the Shindo Cortese had arrived I am now listening to it.
Feeling that I would be able to have the WE300b replaced under warranty the Canadian distributor was contacted and I explained all of what had happened just as above. I was asked to return them to them, which I did. Eventually the distributor got back to me and said that WE would not be honouring the warranty as it was the amp's fault! Apparently the distributor must have felt bad because I was offered a set at their cost. Even at cost these are premium tubes and expensive, no thanks.
So I am not a technician. Given the way things happened I can understand why the amp might be suspect, it could have been the problem. I don't know how WE would test a failed tube and be able to identify the cause of failure, perhaps they can. Perhaps my tech missed something in assessing the amp? It seems to be working just fine now!
All I know is that Western Electric did not honour a warranty that was for me a key in my original purchase!
Sadly that is the case, they are not honouring their warranty for me!
I purchased the WE 300b new and had run them for around 100 hrs in my MasterSound Compact 300b. They performed very well and were a definite upgrade on tubes like the Gold Lion. As I was planning to purchase a Shindo Cortese I took the Western Electrics out to save them for that amp.
At that point I reinstalled and rebiased my Gold Lions in the MasterSound and set the WE 30Ob aside. A few weeks later one of the Gold Lions failed and apparently took out a fuse in the MasterSound as it would not play. I took the amp to a local Red Seal technician. He replaced the fuse and checked over the amp and his feeling was that the amp was fine and the Gold Lion tube was the issue. Just to make sure I asked him to play the Mastersound in his shop for a week before I took it back. He did so and as everything was working fine I had him put the WE 300b back in the MasterSound.
A friend had been wanting to listen to the MasterSound in his system. As the amp is heavy rather than move it twice I took it from the tech and installed it in my friend's system. We had been listening for about half an hour when I noticed one of the WE tubes turning a very bright blue, sensing this was not right I rushed over and shut off everything. The WE always had a nice bluish tinge to them but in this case it was quite spectacular.
Any way back to the tech. There was no fuse issue this time and the tech diagnosed the problem as tube failure. While only one turned that spectacular blue testing showed that both tubes were unusable. Yet another set of tubes was installed and I had the tech run the amp for a week before I would take it back. I reinstalled it in my system and ran the MasterSound for a better part of a month with no issues. As the Shindo Cortese had arrived I am now listening to it.
Feeling that I would be able to have the WE300b replaced under warranty the Canadian distributor was contacted and I explained all of what had happened just as above. I was asked to return them to them, which I did. Eventually the distributor got back to me and said that WE would not be honouring the warranty as it was the amp's fault! Apparently the distributor must have felt bad because I was offered a set at their cost. Even at cost these are premium tubes and expensive, no thanks.
So I am not a technician. Given the way things happened I can understand why the amp might be suspect, it could have been the problem. I don't know how WE would test a failed tube and be able to identify the cause of failure, perhaps they can. Perhaps my tech missed something in assessing the amp? It seems to be working just fine now!
All I know is that Western Electric did not honour a warranty that was for me a key in my original purchase!
I once blew a Takatsuki 300B and then realized that one of the grid bias resistors had a loose connection. When the amp was moved, the bias got disconnected and the anode current surged, blowing the tube. A painful lesson.
I replaced the Tak with the new WE300B. The WE are definitely much quieter, since my amps drive my 112dB sensitive midrange horns directly. In fact, the noise voltage does not get below about 3mV using the hum dinger with the Tak, but can get to unmeasurable level with the WE. The bias is also much more stable and I hardly ever need to adjust the bias current. This shows the quality of the construction.
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