LinLai WE 300B or the LinLai Global Elite Permaloy 300B tubes ?

I've had a pair of Sophia Royal Princess 300B's in my Woo Audio WA5-LE on-and-off for ~7years (more on than off), with no reliability problems whatsoever, maybe the luck of the draw, but so far so good. In fact I tried to by a second pair of the RP 300's, but they had all sold out  by then.

My other pairs of 300B's (all new or NOS) are:

• Emission Labs 300BM - Mesh
• AVVT 32B-SL
• Takatsuki 300B
• KR Audio 300B Riccardo Kron Limited Series
• EAT 300B
• Svetlana 300B (1995)
• STC 4300A (1962), direct WE equivalents

Trying new 300B's is always interesting!

@david_ten

Just to make things clear my WA5-LE is a fully upgraded (standard attenuator, not Alps, etc) Mk 1. Whether the upgraded version was worth the money (~$1K), I honestly don't know as this is the only one I've heard! But I do enjoy it and find it suits my tastes.

My recent dealings (last year) with Woo Audio, were not great. I had an issue with the anodising on part of the power supply unit changing from black, to a burnished brown. Woo basically said tough luck, that's what happens, especially if you have any sunlight on your equipment!!! My gear is kept in a rack well away from direct light.

I found the person I was dealing with a little obnoxious, in that he was more interested in upselling (a new WA amp and more expensive tubes) rather than dealing with what I wanted fixed.

Electrically/electronically the amp has been reliable, with no issues to date.

Though I'd owned tube amps before, I'm surprised at just how much I've spent over the last few years on tubes for this beast. It's at least 3 time the cost of the amp!

The headphones I used with it are:
Senheisser:    HD600, HD650, HD800S
Focal:             Elear
Audeze:          LCD-X
Meze:             Empyrean with their silver cable

My outright favorites are the Meze Empyrean's and yes the silver cable upgrade is worthwhile.

All the best from NZ - Peter