Yes I completely get it, including the macho audiophile arrogance problem. I imagine many of those are at least somewhat stuck in the past, and/or have learned a lot of what they "know" and preach so adamantly from incomplete tech ideology, and/or "knowledge" from reading other's opinions rather than "knowing" from open minded exploration and a lot of experience in that. I think it will almost always be the explorers that take things to new levels in meaningful ways, and at reasonable prices.

I suspect I might have ordered a SEWE300B had a few reviews not caused so many more folks to want Decware, and the resulting waiting list... (remember when we were just fan boys to so many out there)? Having had near death experiences myself, and having gone from imagining being with my exceptionally vibrant wife for a long time to come...to her pretty rapid cascade of bad luck and no longer being among us physically, I was not willing to wait several years to get a SEWE300B. Life is certainly more fragile than we are conditioned to think, and I keep trying to learn to prioritize how I use what time I have.

So I just jumped on a 300B that looked conceptually good, and at a pretty low price comparatively, knowing I could tune it if needed...

With some personalized variations on Steve's sound, this has been my foundation for so long, it is really all I know intimately. The 300B I found, maybe lucky, but I now have a lucid and real sound similar to my highly tuned Decware but with that amazing 300B character... so guessing the ways I have tuned my 300B, with Decware as a foundation, that it is likely to be similar to the SEWE300B in sound anyway.

At first my tricked out Torii was notably better in many ways, other than the big SE tube sound... and this 300B is big like yours in volume also. I still don't get that... how can 7-8 watts seem nearly as loud as 20-25. And I could hear a lot of potential there by opening and speeding the 300B up. Right now, I would guess it and the Torii each have better traits in their own ways. But I am enjoying the 300B a lot, and will explore the greater potential I know is there once I get up the nerve to lift it out. The thing is so heavy I had to get a sturdy kitchen cart on wheels to pull it out onto to more safely do work. Even now though, it is getting so good I am in no rush to compare... really liking the 300B qualities.

I like both my ZBIT and pretty tricked out ZR2 with this amp, though I use the ZR2 more as a gain tuner/enhancer than tone changer like you do. I use the B setting lately with a nicely balanced Mullard 12AT7, and using a fairly narrow gain range from about 9:30 being near unity in mine with this tube, to maybe 11:30. My 300B as it is now responds well to more signal push from this 12AT7 in the ZRock. For "pre" now, I have been tuning my Zstage (#2 serial number with two outputs), and it is sounding great with just cleaning the pot, some coupling and power supply cap bypassing work, and nicely resolving RCAs. More to try, but I really like this setup with or without the ZRock in. I always prefer the enhancing qualities and further gain tuning adjustability with the ZR2 in though. It is after the ZBIT and before the Zstage while the CSP3 waits patiently to come back in for comparison.

The Cary 300B amps that I have heard (one an integrated) I remember as sounding warm but not syrupy -- with that SET presentation that I heard for the first time when I first heard one and that I was so intrigued by that I sought out SET amps I could afford and soon owned the 27th Steve sold.

It's possible that someone coming straight from solid state with no history with tubes might think one of those sounded "syrupy" but I had grown up with my Dad's Dynaco system and had had about four years with an EICO amp from 1959 and I just heard them as warm without that push-pull scrambled and re-assembled sound.

Since that time (mid-nineties) I heard the first Cary there has been an explosion of 300B amps from China, Japan, the US and other parts of the world. Varying price points, varied circuitry, diverse transformers, caps and resistors, there have to be many different sounding ones available.

I'd love to hear the flagship Western Electric amp one day. . . but I'm so happy Steve decided to build the SEWE300B and I have one now. Even with less than 400 hours on mine it seems like a lifetime amp and there is likely none on the market as "flexible" in the manner of tube rolling voltage regulation tubes and none having that uniquely voiced preamp stage.

And that has the DNA of the Decware amplification character and presentation. That is perhaps what I was most surprised with even though I was expecting it!

Sorry this sort of thing drives you nuts. Doesn't bother me and possibly others here. It's the way of forums in my experience. The development. . . is over. So the thread has served as a central conduit for SEWE300B discussion.

I think it's too late for this thread. The development IS over. All the posts about the development are at the front end of this thread. . . the ones from recent months are post-development. . . if someone is looking for information about the development of the amp they don't have to visit the posts from this spring and summer.

That's how I look at it. After the development stage people were in this thread looking for impressions from the first owners, asking questions of them, leading to discussions of tubes etc. A natural evolution of talk on forums.

Quote:


That's where I got mine.

Highly recommended.