I bought my first two pairs of Takatsuki 300B in 2015 when the Yen/USD was 125. Bought them directly from the official distributor in Tokyo when I visited. I used them until one tube blew due to a shorted coupling cap. Bought another pair (can only buy in pairs) and used them until early this year when I bought a quad of the new WE300B. Mind you, I am using a pair of differential push-pull 300B, so the difference might not be the same as SET amps. The first thing I noticed with the WE is that they are much quieter. The background is blacker. Since I drive my compression midrange (111dB /1 watt) directly with just a DC blocking cap in between, they are very sensitive to noise. With the Tak, I was able to get the noise voltage down to 1.8mV. With the WE, the noise was unmeasurable on my Fluke meter. And I rarely needed to adjust the hum balance in the past 6 months. The bias has remained stable all this time. This tells me that the quality of the WE is extremely high. Of course, the Tak is no slouch in this regard, compared to other current manufactured tubes from China and Russia, but I feel the WE is of even higher quality. The two brands are tonally very similar, but the WE is definitely quieter. I tested the original 6-year-old pair of Tak on my eTracer and they are still closely matched and tested almost new, so no issue with longevity with this pair at least.
Takatsuki Tubes
- Thread starter Fred Crane
- Start date
So, your preference in the other tubes is based on hearing 300Bs in unoptimized conditions? Doesn't make your opinion very definitive does it...
You are not interested in a comparison of 300bs in an amp optimized for 300bs, instead you joined a 300b discussion and misled the discussion trying to find out if the 300bs were in unoptimized conditions
Hi Steve,
No I am not sharing my friends name online. Ain’t happening!!!
And I am not dropping $3k to run an experiment - when I can learn from experiences and wisdom of others.
But you are welcome to contact Andy from vintage tubes. He doesn’t sell either brand. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things tubes - Including manufacturing processes.
This hobbby is an expensive pleasure. Yes, taka 300b tubes sound great. But there is a trade off.
For anyone with a money tree not as leafy as others’, I would encourage them to ignore the internet bandwagon and to do their homework.
And what’s up with the personal comments Steve? Perpetuates this is wonderful audiophile culture… No diversity of thought and opinion, and same 150 guys talking past each other , with the majority of those guys just intellectually masturbating
Groupthink kills. Cognitive diversity always wins in effectiveness. This hobby will be much better if we pursue the latter
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Yawn……
you really don’t get it. Your typical way of starting is to mention “facts” but quoted by the “people in the know. Thankfully none of us here like to call something drekk unless we have had first hand experience. You seem to think that “your” opinions rise to the top of the heap when all you are is a gossip monger who likes to start drekk
you really don’t get it. Your typical way of starting is to mention “facts” but quoted by the “people in the know. Thankfully none of us here like to call something drekk unless we have had first hand experience. You seem to think that “your” opinions rise to the top of the heap when all you are is a gossip monger who likes to start drekk
Steve,
I did hear the 300B - sounds great. But thankfully I didn't hear blow up.
I didnt try the Takatsuki , but i tried 3 different 300 B s
Sophia electric was my favourite , i never had any tube issues with any 300B
Sophia electric was my favourite , i never had any tube issues with any 300B
Did the Elrog 300B sound more like 845 to you than "the usual" 300B sound. Where do the Psvane Acme 300B fit in to this discussion, if you're familiar?
We tried psvane in one of the Alieno it was the worst of the lot. In fact when we did a cart compare with psvane amps the kiseki sounded better than Lyra and vdh and Benz. This was because the whole resolution had got lower. The next day when we switched valves to KR and elrog the overall resolution opened up and Lyra and vdh sounded the best and kiseki the worst. We were then able to again put in the psvane and again we got the same results.
I have also heard psvane recti 274b and 211 valves and compared them. They are ok, just value but KR is better and old even better on 211. I haven't heard the elrog 211 but it is supposed to be good as well.
Psvane became famous on this forum when a 845 thread was started without anyone having heard them and many ordered blind and created excitement.
Separately on the 300b front I have compared in SETs KR and JJ and Electroharmonix, but the other two were quite less compared to KR and I think Psvane should be better than them.
At Silvercore I had once comapared WE 300b reissues vs AVVT, we preferred AVVT. Another local audio buddy, and another dealer (who does not deal in any of these tubes) had the same AVVT preference at that time, compared to the 90s reissues.
I would also suggest reading this detailed 300b review with Kevin Fiske and Peter Qvortrup http://www.dagogo.com/psvane-we-11-replica-300b-review wherethey agreed that one has to go back to the 70s to start getting the WE magic.
Regarding comparison to 845, that is a bit irrelevant, 845 gets used in amps that need more power and grip compared to 300b SETs.
300bs get used all across from under 10w to push pulls up to 50 and amps like Aiieno. So with the flexibility of 300b it completely depends on what the amp is trying to get out of it. Given the way you structured the question you have heard it do mainly midrange with bloated bass, but it can be used pretty linear with great bass too in sub 10w amps.
Reg gg dacs on the data sheet it shows the tubes used to voice or test the dac. it’s often a 300b tube
I own now a set of taks 274b and 300b tubes
own a pair of nos we 274b tubes as well. owned and sold a pair of nos we300b years back
the 300b nos to tak was close
tak had a bit more weight
on the we274b and tak not as close
the nos had more air and a bit less weighted
as for noise floor I felt the nos was more noisy
I did not measure dc offset at the dAC nor amps.
I’m not sure dc offset on the output is a function of the tubes in that dc has no sound it’s dc . a blocking cap is made to stop the 300 to 500 volts at the output
if you measure any dc as you sTate it’s not the tubes causing it directly but the caps bleeding
some tubes are noisy more then others in some
devices it’s added in as gain and made worse with tube plates vibrations be it acoustic or current flowing
an example is globes are many times worse then a bottle due to less support
for me the new we or taks make good sense
there are other 300b amd 274b sold as well new not nos.
i have owned and still
some. Sone ate close to real or taks and might be a good try before breaking the bank
Sophia electric 300b owned a pair of princess never liked them yet as was gettig ready to ship them I tried them and really liked them lol
just might thpughts
I own now a set of taks 274b and 300b tubes
own a pair of nos we 274b tubes as well. owned and sold a pair of nos we300b years back
the 300b nos to tak was close
tak had a bit more weight
on the we274b and tak not as close
the nos had more air and a bit less weighted
as for noise floor I felt the nos was more noisy
I did not measure dc offset at the dAC nor amps.
I’m not sure dc offset on the output is a function of the tubes in that dc has no sound it’s dc . a blocking cap is made to stop the 300 to 500 volts at the output
if you measure any dc as you sTate it’s not the tubes causing it directly but the caps bleeding
some tubes are noisy more then others in some
devices it’s added in as gain and made worse with tube plates vibrations be it acoustic or current flowing
an example is globes are many times worse then a bottle due to less support
for me the new we or taks make good sense
there are other 300b amd 274b sold as well new not nos.
i have owned and still
some. Sone ate close to real or taks and might be a good try before breaking the bank
Sophia electric 300b owned a pair of princess never liked them yet as was gettig ready to ship them I tried them and really liked them lol
just might thpughts
I have been running Taka 300bs in my Wavac EC300b for about ten years. They are distortion free, quiet and very 3D transparent. The only tube I have found that better matches the Wavac is the EAT 300b: more body in the bass, overall better impulse dynamics. JJs, Sophia Electric, Psvane aren‘t even in the same Zip code.
Congratulations , i think you re the first person on WBF / our planet to have a distortion free tube
The problem with WBF is that there are too many people here believing in absolute rather than relative assessments: which is I guess implied by the superlative name of the forum
In a straight comparison in a low wattage amp, I've observed that in going from one of many usual suspects to the Elrog 300B imparts a significant change in sound. Like you said, from midrangey and bloomy to a sound more reminiscent of an 845. So this isn't a result of the amp design but of the tube. Have you ever heard the Cary CAD-211? Very interesting 70W amp that has 300B driving 845. I was wondering if Elrog 300B would be "too much" there. With simple EH tubes, the sound is pretty impressive. And I don't normally expect to like Cary designs.
Haven't heard the Cary, but driver tubes usually have sonic effects so you will get a good boost from Elrog. Also by swapping out 211 to some good expensive NOS. Elrog sonically should be a much higher jump from Cary, but I don't know if it will be too much in driving it or not.
I changed out Sophia Princess Mesh 300B to Takatsuki TA-300B in my Canary M500's. It was a significant upgrade.
Then
I changed out Mullard CV378 "Skinny" to Takatsuki TA-274B in my Canary M500's. It was also a significant upgrade.
Then
I changed out Mullard CV378 "Skinny" to Takatsuki TA-274B in my Canary M500's. It was also a significant upgrade.
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