COINCIDENT FRANKENSTEIN 300B STEREO

Newest owner of a Frankenstein stereo 300B.

Ordered in November, Israel was waiting on a shipment of output transformers from Japan; no, I tried but he wouldn’t tell me which company they were sourced from.

What an emotional ride over the past 2 weeks- 1 week ago I thought I was going to sell it for a quick loss, as it was not sounding very good; sounded fine, but not good. Feeling like all these things I read about Coincident, and this thread, was incorrect. Reality: It is just a $2500 amp, right? All the opinions have exaggerated it’s actual performance. After 10 days of playing I took it out of the system for the weekend and put in the Yamamoto just to hear some quality music. Happy to report after putting it back in for a few more days, and putting in some higher quality tubes: A Mullard over the sovtek GZ34 and Tung Sol VT 229 over the Shuguang 6n9p’s, perhaps the combination of the two, and it is now sounding fantastic! And the tubes have only been in for 1 day.

Yes I know all about burn in, and the Gold Lion 300’s are new too, but I read 20-30 hours for the tubes from most reports, and Israel’s owner’s manual states the amp will sound fantastic from new, but even better after 100 hours- which for me was 1 week. Even still, I was doubting the sound and questioning my purchase as things were still not good enough nearing 2 weeks of play- But all good now!

And some people still argue burn in is not real? Crazy. This has gone from a $1000 amp to a $5000-$7000 amp in sound quality in 2 weeks.

@charles1dad

Not sure how long the 2500.00 introductory price will remain.

And the price has gone up quite a bit, it is now $2500 US (I pay in CDN)

Question: I never had a 300B before, I chose Gold Lion’s as my first pair as I read they are great, especially for the price, and didn’t want to spend the price for WE’s or Takatsuki’s (yet) which are reported to be the best. For those who have the experience with this particular amp are they worth the money?

@alexberger The Horning Eufrodites which are 98db.@1m. Tommy Horning designed and voiced these speakers with his own 300B amp, so one would expect they should excel with this amp, but of course not all 300B's are designed the same- Israel confirmed this amp with its suggested 8 ohm tap works just fine with a 4 ohm speaker. 

@sns 

Those Black Treasures were the other tube I was considering. I flipped a coin and picked the Gold Lions. 

 I have Psvane Acme and WE's, both far superior to Shuguang Black Treasures.

 Thanks- I assumed I would hear this response- darn.  At this point I think I would choose WE over Takatsuki's just because after spending that kind of coin on tubes that 5 year warranty is a huge factor. 

From what I see the WE's are $1500 and the PS Vanes are just under $1000, (Lunar New Year!) do you think the WE are worth the extra $500? 

@sns Thanks. Interesting, I see you just posted in this recent thread yet, but that yields some evidence that there are (possibly) just as many WE failures as Takatsuki’s. May be an amp issue- we'll see.

Emission Labs along with WE also have a 5 year warranty.

@jond

Yeah. What is interesting is an amp like the Yamamoto comes with excellent NOS tubes already installed, so when an owner receives it they appreciate it immediately, whereas the Frankenstein stereo comes with a $40 rectifier and $20 driver tubes and that first impression is not as compelling. I wonder how many people live with this amp as it is as far as the oem supplied tubes, and never consider changing them out? It’s like buying a Porsche and never revving it past 3000 rpm.

A power cord is not even supplied as he assumes people will just upgrade it anyway, so why even bother supplying throwaway tubes? Just thinking out loud.

@ghdprentice Thanks. I found the same comment from you in this thread which started 6 years ago. Found posts from @sns and @alexberger as well.

Adding EML to my list.

Takatsuki: Takayuki are knives 

@lak Oh wow, you are one of Israel’s good customers. I noticed your post earlier in this thread but checked your systems and didn’t see the Frankenstein there so maybe thought you had moved on from it.

I am new to tubes, the Primaluna EVO400 pre last year was the first item I bought with tubes to satisfy a curiousity, and now I have 3 components with tubes.

It’s hard to believe one can get this quality of sound from a $2500 US (plus output tubes) amplifier, mostly because of the direct sales approach. He could charge much more for it! But he's a small margin, pass along the savings to the customer type of guy. 

regarding tubes, in both the amp and the pre, I am learning fast!

I stated above the Emissions Labs warranty was 5 years, hearing that one would assume if it fails in the first 5 years one would receive a replacement tube free? and I hate to pass along incorrect information.

Well here is some of the fine print:

• We replace at no charges, for a period of 12 months. This period is extended to 18 months if the sale was registered by the first owner, within 4 weeks after receival.
• When we have to replace tubes after the above period, we are replacing significantly used tubes by factory new tubes. This is an advantage for the user for which we allow the seller to charge something. We recommend for this 40% of the actual list price, until the end of the 5th year, and buyer and seller charge each other no shipment cost.
• A loose tube base is repaired free of charge during the entire guarantee period.

In my mind this "5 year guarantee" is no longer is a factor. I understand they are well made and unless one is unlucky and bought the last one made on Friday evening they should not need it?

http://www.emissionlabs.com/cd.html

* Just went through Western Electric's 5 year warranty and it is as one would expect- no extra charges-