The New Elekit 300B SET Arrives At WoS
Two big boxes landed here on the 24th! All week, Elekit’s brand-new TU8600 has been playing (about 25 hours now) and it is sounding good – very good. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you’re even thinking of the possibility of building a 300B amp in the near future, you oughta pay attention to this one. So far the amp is everything I hoped it would be, and the value appears to be off the charts.
The amp I have is fully built, so the articles will be mostly limited to subjective performance – but I will also be taking it apart for photo essays, and I’ll discuss the build complexity in the context of other kits. (we’ve previously reviewed two unassembled Elekit kits and two that came to us built, like this one)
Note also, there are better photos in the other sneak peek posts. But to whet your appetite, these are some of the extended summer full of activities being planned around the newest Ellie:
- A full review of the stock amp, using my Lowthers, the new Coherent Model 5’s, and the Audeze LCD3 planar-magnetic headphones
- Another review using the custom Lundahl LL2770 output transformers
- A road tour to hear the amp in other familiar rooms – with some of the bigger Coherent speakers, the Reference 3A Veena, and Tannoy Monitor Gold 15’s
- A discussion on building the kit
- …more?? Who knows.
I doubt I’ll get into tube rolling at this time, but you never know. (my name is not Steve Graham, my name is not Steve Graham)
Once again, you guys at Wall of Sound publish timely, thoughtful reviews on relevant products. I can’t wait to to read the reviews.
Ok Noam enough foreplay. 3 previews, now get to the review. 🙂 From the pictures it looks like all of the tubes are Genalex reissues which from my experience of the E88CCs bodes well. The 300B tube shootout you did back in 2015 rated the Genalex 300B a winner too. Just listen and don’t obsess. I do enough of that for both of us!
Cheers, Steve Graham
Yes, Garry gave me a choice of tubes and I asked for these.
Hi Steve.
For TU-8200 users who are planning to switch, please let us know how the new TU-8600 compares to the TU-8200.
And yes, please hurry. 😀
Mario, just to make clear: the TU-8600 replaces the TU-8300. (which I’m familiar with from the 2015 review)
The TU-8200 (6L6) is still a current model. It was also reviewed here (by Tim) a couple years ago.
Regards,
-Noam
300B reviewer 🙂
Hi Noam.
Yes, I believe you somewhat liked the amp, guessing by the review title: “Is this the world’s best $1000 amplifier”. 😀
Anyway, for us who are exclusively headphone listeners, and have an Elekit TU-8200, like myself, it would be great to have a comparison with TU-8600. I’m not going to say much, but judging by your review of TU-8300, and assuming you upgrade the transformers on the TU-8600 and use, let’s say Takatsuki 300B tubes, this thing could probably produce one of the best sounds out there.
That would be quite enough for me to make an order pretty quickly and replace what I have now. 😀
Oh, and I use the KR Audio KT88 with my TU-8200. Miles and miles ahead of the stock tubes.
Just ordered one of these with the Lundhal upgrade. I’m just going to assume if the 8300 was good, this one will be better for a marginally higher cost. Although I do look forward to someone highlighting the differences. Aaannny time you feel like getting around to that review sounds good to me. No pressure.
TU-8600’s noise level is as low as 1/10 of the TU-8300R. Amazing Design
Hi Noam.
Is the review incoming any time soon?
Come on! Don’t leave us hanging! I already bought mine but I can’t wait to hear the review….
Why Mr. Fujita designs TU-8600 with CFB – Cathode Feedback minimizes THD and intermodulation distortions and makes total bandwidth ultra-wide without using overall negative feedback from output to input of your amp. All of it makes sound amazing, detailed and spacious…
The amp arrived on the 24th, that means that today is exactly 1 month since it arrived in your office guys. You need to give us at least something! 🙂
It’s a fantastic amp. We are part time reviewers, doing our best…
Nice to hear from you again Noam and I’m sure you guys are doing your best! 😀
Glad to hear that the amp is fantastic, I’d expect nothing less from Elekit!
Looking forward to the review. 🙂