2. amps-preamps
  3. 179800-9734

COINCIDENT FRANKENSTEIN 300B STEREO

Just purchased one of these beasts from Israel of Coincident (quite the gentleman).

I already have a few SET amps that buck the trend of little bass and dynamics that often get associated with S.E.T. amps.

The Frankie is a top notch power amplifier.  Not a good value.  Not a giant killer.  A true, top quality power amplifier period.

I swapped out the stock tubes and what happened next shocked me.  Of course the midrange is gorgeous,  But I did not expect the highs to sparkle and the bass to have definition, texture, and punch.  Sorry,  I intended to say PUNCH.

As always, speaker matching is a key and a stable 6 Ohm speaker will sound best - but these babies are the real deal.

BTW, they retail at around $2,500.

Disclaimer - I am not a Coincident dealer and have no affiliation with Coincident.  I am a NOS tube dealer.

 

P

 

 

 

128x128paul_lindemann
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,236 posts
 

 

I was looking hard at this amp about a year ago. I ended up going with the Tektron. Between 300B’s, 2A3’s, and 45’s, I prefer the 45’s. Looks like a great deal - enjoy

Any one of those 3 tubes is excellent with good amplifier implementation. You obviously have very efficient speakers if you are able to use the 45 tubes.

Charles

markusthenaimnut's avatar
markusthenaimnut
354 posts
 

Wow. Cool. I did not know about this amp.

lpretiring
428 posts
 

I'm curious about this amp and if it would be suitable for my 4-ohm Tektons. I will give Israel a call to find out some specifics, but any experience or thoughts here would be appreciated as well.

In looking at the website now the price is excluding the 300B's. Were some 300B's actually included a couple of months ago?  

 

   LP

 

charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,236 posts
 

@lpretiring

A few years ago a friend had the Tekton Double Impacts and asked if I could bring my Frankenstein mono blocks over. I was happy to do so. The 8 watt SET drove his Double Impacts exceptionally well. No issues or strain/stress at all. His listening space is roughly 15x18 feet with 8 ft ceiling.

My Frankensteins lack a 4 ohm speaker tap. I have the early edition of this MK II (2009) amplifier which has 8 and 16 ohm taps. Newer models have 4 and 8 ohm taps. We used my 8 ohm tabs. So could potentially be even better matching with a 4 ohm tap.

 

These speakers are an easy load.
They are 4 ohm nominal but probably a very flat impedance curve and no steep phase angles to deal with. I don’t know how close the stereo version is to the mono block version however. If pretty close, then no problem.

Charles

alexberger
865 posts
 

I think you can’t compare stereo and mono Frankensteins. The maximal power is not the only important thing. Is even much more important that stereo and mono have different driver tubes and power supplies.

I don’t have Frankenstein amplifier but I have my DIY 300B amplifier that I did dozens changes and tweaks. I can say, for example, changing powers supply capacitors value, type or model can make more impact on sound than changing of output transformers. Or increasing current of driver tube can change sound dramatically. The amplifier with weaker driver, smaller and sheared between two channels power supply can’t sound similar to monoblocs.

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