Best 300B

Shuguang Treasures Black bottles. They compare very favorably with EAT 300b and that says a lot. However, as has been mentioned they have a long burn-in time.

Charles and I have totally different equipment, but similar experiences with 300b tubes. I prefer the Takatsukis over the Royal Princes and think that both totally outclass the Shuguang BTs. I have not heard the Psvane Treasures that by all reports seem to be better than the Shuguangs. And I have not heard the EML mesh plates that Charles says are competitive with the Takatsukis and Royal Princess. I keep looking for a review of the WE replicas, but have not seen one. While I might be curious as to how they would sound, I am totally content with the Takatsukis. So much so that I bought a back-up pair. I know, crazy. My experience with SET amps is that the tube selection affects the sound a lot.

Brownsfan: What you say makes sense. Especially a lending library. It would be great to be able to try a tube before buying a pair or a quad. Especially at today's prices for top-notch 300b.

I once asked the US distributor/seller of Takatsuki if I could borrow a pair to try. He laughed at me.

If the US representative of Takatsuki had offered a demo 300b pair to "try," I would have bought my tubes from the US distributor rather than sourcing them from Japan.

I suspect that each of us has tubes that we do not use. For example, I have a new pair of EAT300b that I would be willing to contribute to a co-op venture. I wonder if manufacturers/distributors would be interested as well.