Hi Everyone,
I was having a deep late night dive into rare Telefunkens a few months back and came across Stradi Tube from Korea. I was super curious about what they offered, given they make modern replicas of a lot of classic German DHT tubes which no-one else does. They also have some rather unique DHTs that are specifically re-engineered for very low noise and thus can be considered for preamplifier/ phono stage duties. (DHTs are inherently noisy so at low signal levels they can be more challenging to implement). I spoke to John there, and now I am in possession of three of their tube varieties. One is a Telefunken variant that I want to possibly develop some future things around and the other two are 300B variants:
300B - Basically a WE300B clone with its intent to possess that classic 300B sound.
S300B - This one is more unique. It has a different shaped bottle, and it basically a Siemens tube developed to run at 300B specs to be drop-in on 300B amps.
I am still getting hours on them before I deep dive on all their nuances and how they compare to new production WE300Bs. That said, the initial sound is VERY nice. They are definitely top-tier 300Bs and its probably one of those things that will be a matter of listening preference and system setup. In particular, the S300B sounds VERY much like a VT-52; cleaner and more exacting than the usual 300B sound, but still possessing the liquidity I find 801A lacking when used as a power tube.
I know there has been some talk around these tubes, so if anyone has something in particular you want me to listen when I get a bit deeper into to the listening, please let me know.
COMMERCIAL DISCLAIMER: Stradi provided the telefunken 242 clones as a sample for product development. I purchased the 2 pairs of 300Bs. Considering there is so little info out there on these tubes, I figure its for the "greater good" of the audiophile community to post up my listening impressions.
I was having a deep late night dive into rare Telefunkens a few months back and came across Stradi Tube from Korea. I was super curious about what they offered, given they make modern replicas of a lot of classic German DHT tubes which no-one else does. They also have some rather unique DHTs that are specifically re-engineered for very low noise and thus can be considered for preamplifier/ phono stage duties. (DHTs are inherently noisy so at low signal levels they can be more challenging to implement). I spoke to John there, and now I am in possession of three of their tube varieties. One is a Telefunken variant that I want to possibly develop some future things around and the other two are 300B variants:
300B - Basically a WE300B clone with its intent to possess that classic 300B sound.
S300B - This one is more unique. It has a different shaped bottle, and it basically a Siemens tube developed to run at 300B specs to be drop-in on 300B amps.
I am still getting hours on them before I deep dive on all their nuances and how they compare to new production WE300Bs. That said, the initial sound is VERY nice. They are definitely top-tier 300Bs and its probably one of those things that will be a matter of listening preference and system setup. In particular, the S300B sounds VERY much like a VT-52; cleaner and more exacting than the usual 300B sound, but still possessing the liquidity I find 801A lacking when used as a power tube.
I know there has been some talk around these tubes, so if anyone has something in particular you want me to listen when I get a bit deeper into to the listening, please let me know.
COMMERCIAL DISCLAIMER: Stradi provided the telefunken 242 clones as a sample for product development. I purchased the 2 pairs of 300Bs. Considering there is so little info out there on these tubes, I figure its for the "greater good" of the audiophile community to post up my listening impressions.
