Exactly... I have one Chinese 300b amp. Its a good thing I looked ahead. I end up spending twice what I paid for to get it sounding the way how I want it. There are others out there that are more promising if youre planning to spend over $2500
I agree 100% with you. use crappy capacitors with all that current and thats a disaster waiting to happen.
You should consider a 300B from a reputable builder. There are several builders who sell really decent tube amps online for a couple thousand dollars.
There's a new one from Western Electric: 91 E — Western Electric - Maker of electron tubes and high fidelity 15 to 17 thousand. . . . I pre-ordered one under development from Decware because I'm a Decware nut. I last heard a 300B amp last century, a Cary. I liked it a lot.
You Decware guys are nuts. In a good way. Never saw a more cult like following in my life …. I might join
yup. Thats a real issue. Hard to know which are and which arent, but I'd stay away from the bottom sub $2000 units for a start.
James Burgess, Oliver Sayes, and Min Yang all build nice amps. I’ve owned amps from all three of them, never had an issue. You can also find completed Elekit amps for sale on USAudiomart.
I would trust my skill set with an Elekit before I would buy a no name cheap amp..... at least if it catches on fire thats on me
My suggestion is buy an amp that you think you like the most on what you get out of research. Just make sure that you can return the amp if you ever change your mind. Just remember there is a difference in the sound of PP, SET, 8 watts and dual 300b with 18 watts. Really boils down to the music you listen, what speakers you prefer and what equipment you want to use with the 300b. A little bit of a road but you gotta start somewhere.
My other 300b SET amp is Chinese made. Its a good thing I had a talk with 5-string before I pulled the trigger. Realistically to get a "good to excellent" (category) sounding 300b amp that has caliber parts, The minimum is I was looking at $3,500 and up 2 years ago. The amp was less than $1,000 discounted because I was the very first one bought that model. Followed with a $1,400 Hashimoto pure copper output transformer, modify rectifier section, preamp section, change preamp tubes. Presto! It was a big gamble on my end but it came out really good. I have another 300b which is a push pull with 18 watts. Both sound great but I found myself listening to the push-pull more.. Why? Because I can listen to a lot more different kind of music. But I wont say its better because the SET amp sounds more gloriously holographic sound. My music selection is limited for sometimes I like to listen to like 80's keyboards and clan electric sound. BTW. Going back a bit to the Chinese amp, I was asked by some guy at the other site and was told I spent a lot of money. My amp is running and sounding like a million bucks after a month. The guys that commented me are still turning screws with their amp for 2 years now... But anyways just look for something that has a warranty and you should be fine.
Yes good 300b amps aren't cheap. I sent Matt half the deposit , orig price was $5500 and then I had him add stepped attenuators, better coupling caps, it's got the premium Hitachi Fine Met Amorphous Output Trannies , some tantalum caps, and the best option, Western Electric 300b output tubes. I have a dozen pair of input tubes, all NOS Amperex, Mullard , and Phillips. 10 really nice rectifier tubes, most are NOS JAN from 1945 - 1956 , plus while ya can get 'em I bought a second pair of 300b. At my age I should have a lifetime of tubes for this amp, which I am pretty sure will be my last.
Awesome guys! Fantastic information. Thank you. Would you say I could get a good, SAFE 300B Amp for 3000?
I built an Elekit TU-8600S with full upgrades a year ago and have been quite pleased thus far. It produces about 9 wpc. I am using Cossar WE300B and Valvo tubes. I am probably right at $3k with the tubes. You should search the threads here and read Herb Reichert’s Stereophile articles. I concur with his opinion that it compares with amps that cost a lot more. You can get it built for reasonable money if you’d rather not DIY, but to me doing the build adds to the overall experience. It’s not difficult if you have some soldering skill.
Beautiful Speakers!! And right here in Brooklyn! But , out of my price range. Funny, my Tannoys have slightly better sensitivity at 93.
May want to stretch your budget and look at Dennis Had's 300b amp. It is $3998 but I bet it's a great amp for the money
Another option to consider is one of the ANK 300B kits. If you don't want to try to build it yourself, they offer a service to build it for you, at least for some of the higher end models. You can contact them to see what the price would be. I build a pair of monoblocks, starting with their best C-core monoblock kit. Since I was planning to do my own chassis, they gave me a discount on the parts I needed. I used the basic circuit design, but added a lot of upgrades. But I think their basic kits are pretty descent and will result in a nice sounding amp. I've got a nice collection of amps including several DIY builds as well as commercial amps including Pass XA60.8 monoblocks, and I think my ANK-based DIY 300B amps are the best sounding overall. But I should note that with all the upgrades I added (including Western Electic new-issue 300Bs), I have well over $10K invested in these amps.
On a short note to 300b users especially 2 or more output tubes per channel. I been using a cooling fan on my amp. so I can run it longer than normal. It keeps my main transformer controlled in long duration so and the inside chassis. So far I haven't blown any tubes yet especially 300b and its been 2 years now.
