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  3. 192535-1853

Western Electric 300B problem

So I recently purchased pair of WE300B, Friday night first listen. At start up heard mechanical pinging and popping, pre muted so nothing through speakers, after the pinging and popping ended, pre out of mute heard nothing unusual through speakers. No issues other than blue glow at tops of tube throughout 5 hour listening session. Tonight I power up tubes for second listen, immediately see left monoblock tube goes completely cloudy with blue fog throughout tube, this along with popping, right monoblock tube fine.

 

So it seems I have gassy tube, lost vacuum already! And here I thought recent improvements with quality control there had solved these issues. Not happy with this purchase, been running Psvane Acme 300B's for nearly 1000 hours with no issues.

sns
sns OP
3,295 posts
 

Thing is I  heard WE had recently improved evacuation equipment, this failure betrays that. This also not the first I've heard about gassy WE300B's, red plating has also been an issue with higher plate voltages of some amps. Max rating on Acme 480V, WE450V.

 

Never had an issue with 300B tubes prior to this in either my 300B monoblocks or as drivers in my 845 SET amp. Shuguang and Acme's. I've had some failures with 101D tubes in my pre, both Linlai and Psvane.

 

I'll just go back with Acme's in amp, have absolutely no issues of any kind, sound quality fantastic, just wanted to hear what WE brought to the table. What I heard in first five hours was very nice, just a bit rolled off on top, darkish tonality, resolution/transparency very nice, right up there with Acme.

 

 

carlsbad2's avatar
carlsbad2
1,665 posts
 

Have you compared EMLs?  I use those in my dac.  where do you buy your ACMEs?

testpilot
952 posts
 

A brand new tube is mostly to fail during the first 10 hours of use. 

Warning, if you are going to buy expensive new production tubes for investment or future use, burn them in during the warranty period before you put them away.

jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
4,174 posts
 

I am about to buy the WE300B because of the discount.Then suddenly I remember reading some issues? I decided to research more ? Then this thread. So no for now. If I ever decide I will buy from Uncle KEVIN AT upscale audio , I will request to test them before shipping.I bought tubes from them, pricey but I have good experience from them. The last 8 tubes I bought for my Tsakadiris Alexander preamp  are excellent.

larsman's avatar
larsman
1,995 posts
 

I've had the newer WE 300B tubes for a couple of years now and they work and sound amazing; no problems at all, and would buy again in a heartbeat. The warranty on these tubes is 5 years, provided you sent in the warranty card when you got the tubes. 

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