300B Tube Shootout, circa 2015 – Coming Soon!

Update: this is finally published!! Link

It’s been a long time since one of these last appeared. Although Enjoythemusic, TNT, and 6moons have posted 300B tube comparos in the past, they happened in 2001, 2004, and 2008, respectively. Richard Foster’s excellent articles in hi-fi+ were….10 years ago(!). Overall quality of Chinese and Russian tubes has improved consistently since that time, and here at Wall of Sound we think it’s an appropriate time to update the knowledge base. We still think the 300B type is one of the finest power triodes available. And for these listening tests we’ll have on hand at least two excellent single-ended stereo amplifiers.

So we’re pleased and excited to accept the challenge, and we will publish a “2015 300B Shootout”, by the end of July. So far we have eight entrants, with huge thanks to our sponsor (and neighbour), Thetubestore.com :

By place of origin we have 2 Russian pair, 5 Chinese (2 of which are premium grade), and 1 Slovak.

Shuguang “WE300B” (premium, Western Electric replica). Pricing/info TBC

Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z. $279.95 each. Premium “export grade” tube

Shuguang 300BC. $134.95 each. Solid graphite anode plate, gold grid wiring, gold pins

Shuguang 300B-98B. $124.95 each. Mesh anode plate, gold grid wiring

Shuguang 300B-98. $109.95 each. Entry level Chinese 300B

JJ Electronic 300B. $129.95 each. Dual point matched, with factory certificates. Made in Slovak Republic

Genelex Gold Lion PX300B. $163.95 each. Russian made (New Sensor)

 Electro-Harmonix EH300B Gold. $117.95 each. Nickel grid is gold-plated. Russian made

To say the least, we’re looking forward to hearing and commenting on all of these tubes. And possible a few others.