Anyone try the NEW 300B Tubes from Western Electric? Worth the Money? Better or Different than older Ones?

[AudioHR]

I

I once blew a Takatsuki 300B and then realized that one of the grid bias resistors had a loose connection. When the amp was moved, the bias got disconnected and the anode current surged, blowing the tube. A painful lesson.
I replaced the Tak with the new WE300B. The WE are definitely much quieter, since my amps drive my 112dB sensitive midrange horns directly. In fact, the noise voltage does not get below about 3mV using the hum dinger with the Tak, but can get to unmeasurable level with the WE. The bias is also much more stable and I hardly ever need to adjust the bias current. This shows the quality of the construction.

I am not sure what your lesson was. How would you know the grid bias resistor had a loose connection? You were just unlucky.

I am not debating the audio quality or the construction of the WE300b merely pointing out that they did not honour their warranty in my case.

 

[kodomo]

Ok, let's see if they honor mine. I have a pair, one on each monoblock and one of them has stopped working. There is no distributor in Turkey and I bought it at the end of Munich fair in 2022

 

[adrianywu]

I am not sure what your lesson was. How would you know the grid bias resistor had a loose connection? You were just unlucky.

I am not debating the audio quality or the construction of the WE300b merely pointing out that they did not honour their warranty in my case.

When I examined the amp after it has happened. It was a poor solder joint. A lesson because I built the amp.........

 

[AudioHR]

Ok, let's see if they honor mine. I have a pair, one on each monoblock and one of them has stopped working. There is no distributor in Turkey and I bought it at the end of Munich fair in 2022

I for one will be interested to see if they honour the warranty!

 

[djsina2]

What mA bias are people using with these?

 

[the sound of Tao]

What mA bias are people using with these?

(Used as a driver tube in an LM805) they run at 70 mA… love them completely.

 

[calloway]

In my system...where the 300Bs are my driver tubes...1 for each mono block, the ACME Psvanes are better.

 

[c_ocobean1]

Older thread here but thought I would toss in my experience with the WE return/warranty policy. I have a set of Tak's in place currently and another set of WE (production yr. 2022) on the way that I just purchased. My original set of WE (production yr 2023) had some noise happening that sounded like an underwater sonar coming out from my speaker. I recorded the noise, sent it to WE and without question sent me a new matched pair. It was pretty stress and drama free. I understand that hasn't been the case with everyone. Here is the kicker, they told me to just send the tubes in their boxes, without the WE wood box. When they returned the new pair, they resent in complete package, so I have the extra wood box. Very nice!

 

[chatr]

I have tried full music 300b, psvane we replica 300b, psvane we replica 300b+, psvane acme 300b and then the new production we 300b. Each step was a step upwards for me however between acme and we there is a catch and one can choose one over another. Acme is great and has very good top end, silky yet extended, a floaty feeling but new we has better midbass attack and better midrange holography and tone yet the top end is not as silky or extended sounding. When I heard new we 300b, there is nothing missing from the top end, it is just that the acme sounds more special there, like the difference between a 45 tube and 300b, acme 300b top end sounds more like a 45 tube in a good way. Overall, I preferred the new we300b and it has been getting better especially in the first 50 hours, stabilized and good sounding.

I've Western Electric 1983, 2023 and Psvane Acme 300B. The Western Electric built their legend and the Acme 300B sound not even close to them. The WE 2023 pair sounds very clean, sparkle and super crystal clear while WE 1983 pair sounds kind of classic sexy. The Acme ones sounds sparkle but not as clean as both WE 2023 and WE 1893. the Acme 300B sounds a bit of classic but not as sexy as the WE 1983. The good thing about Acme 300B is they cost much much less but does enough good things.

 

[Balle Clorin]

The best I have had was Emission Lab 300B , much better than TJ and original Cayin tubes. EML 300b gave much lower distortion , see my data above .
I have yet to se any SET perform as well as Cayin 300 equipped with TungSol 6SN7 combination with EML 300B. I traced the tube curves and the EML was in fact more linear than the published original WE 300B curves

 

[cpcat]

Just put my quad back in- wow, nice to be back home for awhile .
Really- I forgot just how good these sound. Midrange rules. And the punchy bass and nice delicate treble -
Good thing I have many thousands of hours left

 

[iaxel]

Just received a pair of new production WE 300B for my Yamamoto A-09s.
Experiencing some low-noise hum in the background (compared to my EML 300B XLS which was previously installed on my A-09s).
Anyone with similar experiences?

 

[Argonaut]

Quick thought … Are the socket clips gripping the tube pins on the WE’s tightly / correctly ?

 

[iaxel]

Quick thought … Are the socket clips gripping the tube pins on the WE’s tightly / correctly ?

Thank you for the prompt reply!
Tried disconnecting and reconnecting the tubes to the sockets and the hum remains. Everything seems to be tightly connected.

 

[Audiocrack]

Thank you for the prompt reply!
Tried disconnecting and reconnecting the tubes to the sockets and the hum remains. Everything seems to be tightly connected.

Might it be a bias issue? For example with my Kondo Kagura amps I have to change the bias manually when I insert new/other 211 valves. I am not familiar with your amps though: do they automatically adjust their bias?

 

[iaxel]

Might it be a bias issue? For example with my Kondo Kagura amps I have to change the bias manually when I insert new/other 211 valves. I am not familiar with your amps though: do they automatically adjust their bias?

Thanks. They have auto bias.

 

[Argonaut]

No worries … are you experiencing this hum emanating from the mains transformer or from your speakers ? The latter can be an AC heater(s) issue , also your new 300B’s might simply be settling in , give it a couple of days , also check bias to the 300B’s ,nice having a pair of meters altho they can sometimes be a problem in themselves , also check the usual suspect grounding , consider a DC blocker if you have one handy …

 

[djsina2]

Just received a pair of new production WE 300B for my Yamamoto A-09s.
Experiencing some low-noise hum in the background (compared to my EML 300B XLS which was previously installed on my A-09s).
Anyone with similar experiences?

I had to re-adjust my hum pots. Isn't this normal when switching to different tubes?

 

[DasguteOhr]

I had to re-adjust my hum pots. Isn't this normal when switching to different tubes?

Simply solder 100 ohm resistors into the heating and then connect them to ground. Usually better than these potentiometers with contact problems if you don't keep turning them.

 

[iaxel]

I had to re-adjust my hum pots. Isn't this normal when switching to different tubes?

Hum is normal? I have had many tube amps and replaced them multiple times with different new production and NOS tubes and this is not normal.
I admit that it is the first time I replace tubes on the Yamamoto A-09s amp.