Elrog 300B vs Takatsuki 300B tubes

It is unfortunate if the Elrogs turn out to be unreliable and the problem is never fully cured. I would certainly only buy this tube from a very reliable source, such as George Lenz of TubesUSA.

The vintage Western Electrics as well as the more modern ones that were made up through the 1990s were extremely reliable and very long lived. I know a of a lot of people who have used them for MANY years without a failure or the tubes growing weak (the only problem with the newer tubes that I saw myself had to do with poor gluing of the tube to the base (easily repaired). It is quite unfortunate that production has not resumed on this tube.

A local dealer, who has an exclusive custom builder building his house brand of electronics, insists that the older Western Electric 300Bs with "engraved base" are the best 300Bs. He actually puts them into working amps (not kept as museum pieces), but, the price of these tubes are really prohibitively high for all but the craziest and wealthiest fans of the tube. He even has a 59A amp that uses a tube that is similar to the 300B (a 252) that is unbelievably rare--the amp is fantastic sounding.

Almost all of the newer tube makers have had problems, at least initially, with quality control and reliability. In time, if they are any good at it, these problems abate (e.g., EML had early problems, but, they appear to be reliable now.

In the various amps I've heard, the Western Electric reissues were okay sounding, but, I generally preferred the sound of the EMLs and Krons to the Western Electics. But, I did mention them because they demonstrate that it is possible for someone to make a very reliable and long-lived tube of this type.

Pani,

I have heard one of the First Watt amps (cannot remember the specific model) in my system for about two weeks (borrowed from a friend).  I liked it a lot--smooth, clear and lively.  Yes, there was a bit of brittleness and an artificially hard edge to the initial attack of some notes (common to solid state), but, it was still a very nice sounding amp.  Unlike a lot of other solid state amps, it did not sound flat and lifeless when playing at soft or moderate volume levels.  It also sounded harmonically rich and dense (a lot of solid state and high-powered pushpull tube amps fail in this respect).  As far as practical concerns, I found it a reasonably easy amp to use--no pops or other noise on turn-on or turn-off, no other problems during my time of usage.  But, like most solid state gear, it takes longer to warm up and really sound its best than tube gear; one possible approach would be to leave it on most of the time).  Although I have not heard other Pass gear in my own system, I have not been favorably impressed the times I have heard their non-First Watt gear.

I own a parallel single-ended 2a3 amp (Audio Note Kageki) a pushpull 45 amp (Deja Vu Audio) and a pushpull 249 amp.  They all have a different sound, and I cannot really say whether this is mainly the characteristic of the topology, differences in components, and/or differences in the tube used.  The single-ended amp is very good at sounding relaxed and harmonically rich; I also like how the bass, though not strong and punchy, is "refined" in the way it delivers subtly different tonal structure depending on the music being played.  My pushpull 249 amp sound more punchy in the bass, but, that sound is a bit more mechanical and generic and not as subtly differentiated as the bass from the single-ended amp.  Still, right now, the pushpull 249 is my favorite amp (somewhat difficult to compare with the Kageki because the 249 amp has transformer inputs and works best with my full transformer input and output linestage).

If I had to pick an amp that is my absolute favorite, it might well be a custom-built, output transformerless amps that two people I know have in their system.  These are extremely dynamic and lively amps that also deliver a very rich harmonic palette.  Unfortunately, they are nearly one-ofs, and are a bit scary (no protection circuitry and no transformer between the tubes and the speaker to protect the speakers).   The other totally unrealistic candidate I heard is a very old Western Electric 59B amp, which is another ultra dynamic sounding amp; too bad those go for somewhere near $80,000 per channel.

In short, I don't really favor any particular implementation of tube amps; I have heard great sound from all types.  As a rough generalization, I tend to like low-powered amps over higher powered amps that use multiple tetrode or pentode tubes to achieve the high power (OTLs being the exception).  To me, if someone really needs a lot of power and ability to drive a difficult load, solid state is the better way to go.

Hi Charles 1 dad,

Have you tried the EML meshplae tubes?  I know they are not supposed to be as robust as the XLS, but, I do wonder how they sound.  I use to run EML meshplate 2a3s in my Kageki, and that was a VERY interesting tube and quite different from the EMLs with solid plates.  The mesh-plate tubes delivered a huge, enveloping sound-stage and a very extended and airy sounding top end.  In some sense, the sound could be described as a bit "phasey" and almost unnatural, but, I liked it nonetheless.  

One more thing, I cannot imagine anyone providing better service than George Lenz at Tubes USA.  That would be my go-to source for anything that he carries.   

I am not surprised that the EML meshplates turned out to be not robust enough to be driven hard.  A lot of modern designs do drive tubes harder than do older amps.  My EML meshplate 2a3s had a long life span in my Audio Note Kagekis, but, when I tried the same tubes in a friend's pushpull amp, after a few minutes of operation, the sound became distorted and the plates started to flash.  The pushpull amp, had a much higher plate voltage, and even with a somewhat modest current level, this was too much for the meshplates.