New Western Electric 91E 300B Tube Integrated Amp REVIEW !

Yes, if it sounds anything like Prima Luna, it would be a major disappointment.  But, until I hear one, I will withhold judgment.  There is a lot of things being said by Western Electric that is suspicious.  They talk about the single ended 300b “sound” of the amp, but do not declare that it “is” a SET.  The circuit, which someone posted looks more like a shunt regulated pushpull variant than single ended.  There is a cap blocking dc current from flowing through the primary.  This accounts for why it can make do with puny transformers.  But in the end, it doesn’t matter what is the topology if does sound good.  On that front, I expect it to sound good because Western Electric, whose primary investment is in tube making, is staking a share of their reputation on this amp.

Wow!  It would be a truly horrible amp if it sounds worse than a Dynaco ST70.  For the record I use to own one.

For those who think specifications tell you all you need to know to determine whether an amp will sound good, amps like these willbe instantly rejected.  Who needs to trust their own lyin’ ears when there are stats to prove one amp is better than another?

The specifications for the WE 91 are in the linked stereophile review.  To me, the biggest concern is the 3 ohm source impedance of the amp which would mean frequency response effects based on the impedance of the speaker at each frequency (i.e. the response will vary because the speaker impedance changes with frequency).  The somewhat high harmonic distortion, even at low output is not that big a deal because it is common to a lot of tube amps and is primarily second order, which is harmless (maybe even part of the “rich” sound of tubes).