I disagree this is a big point with me. I want to say
sitting at a table or at the bar, you know in the club.
Maybe your way back but you are there when its happening.
That's the truth man, everyone else is chasing the dragon

I love records, I worked retail when they sold 7" reels from many major labels. It was a step up in quality but it was r duplicated at high speed so you know. The slower the speed the better the quality but tape is expensive so 15 IPS versus seven IPS versus 3 1/2 IPS

Everything else is a facsimile of that. Eye Contact the temperature of the room, people sitting down with you it's all part of it.
That's the Truth, I wouldn't lie

Yeah the studio is an instrument, and everything in the chain matters. But the key word is its a reproduction.

Every one of us experiences those reproductions in different ways
And every one of us experiences live interactions in different ways

I'm just trying to say it's two different truths.

There you go you, you experienced two different truths, live at the country fair was the right medicine no matter how imperfect. Music filtered through the studio or even recorded live isn't that other thing that you had at the country fair.

I guess to me it isn't so much about "truth" as it is about "good." I've been to lots of live music that sounds pretty bad, either because the space and/or the sound system was bad or the performers just weren't that good, or all the above. OTOH I have shelves full of great music recorded by some of the finest musicians (and recording engineers) of the last 100 years lining my listening room. So if it is a choice between meh live or a great recording on my great sounding stereo mostly the recording wins.

To be clear, I've been to great concerts and the gestalt of a (great) live performance is unbeatable. But I live out the middle of nowhere now and the opportunity for great concerts is pretty limited. Even when I lived in LA and went to a lot of them, the meh type greatly outnumbered the really memorable ones. Of course this is JMO/FWIW/YMMV but it takes a lot for me to turn off a sure thing on my stereo to take my chances in the real world.

UPDATE 08/24/2022

As I write this, the amplifier is playing on the house speakers and sounding delicious. Its is the Aphrodite of HIFI right now. So within this protective bubble of serenity because of the good sound it's easy to write the truth. This amp has some surprises. It's kind of like marrying your girlfriend... This is why I take so much time during the development cycle to get to know the amp.







I have discovered there is a difference between this and basically all of our other amplifiers after all. It is actually somewhat selective about which speakers it will use to totally take you. I hear bigger differences between the speakers than with our SE84UFO series or actually all of our amplifiers. All of our amplifiers make you feel like there is a real synergy happening regardless of the speakers you use, so long as they get loud enough.

The HDT Silver8 speakers that have become a reference to reckon with using the SE84UFO25, sound a bit off on the 300B amp. So do the new T6 bookshelf speakers. The HDT become picky about placement and if everything is not perfect they can get lean. The T6 just sound extra smooth almost to a fault. The Tube Tots kick their ass, both speakers.  However, on the SE84UFO25 all three speakers are so good it's hard to pick one.

The House speakers are insane with the 300B as are the Tube Tots, and all of the open baffle speakers. This is encouraging from the perspective that it likes hi-fi speakers.  88dB 3-ways with high quality crossovers are less impressive on the SE84UFO25 due to power.  The 300B amp also likes single driver crossoverless and speakers like the DNA, DNA2, CORNER HORNS, HR-2's, DM945's to name a few, but it is perplexing why certain speakers sound better on the SE84UFO25.

This is a common experience for most hifi situations, I believe it is called synergy. Nevertheless I have been getting away with largely overcoming synergy for years so this is somewhat of a new experience for me in this room. That said, let's pick the two speakers that I've heard sound better on the UFO25 and pretend we've never heard them on the UFO25 and only listen to them on the 300B. We would think it was incredible. The HDT depending on placement if lean would just be supplemented with a sub. It isn't until you compare it with the Decware holy grail, UFO25 amp that your perspective changes.

Also on a side note, I am still with my decision to use 6N6P for the driver tubes that will ship with the amplifier. I always come back to those and I've been trying lots of stuff over the past months. This is good, because I'm pretty sure that's what I silk screened on the chassis that I ordered. Hopefully I'll see those soon. The high-end paint always causes delays ever since covid 19.

Thinking out loud...


As I continue to listen to these, I come away with a reminder of the power of triodes vs. pentodes and tetrodes.  Despite for example on a Zen amp putting out 2.3 watts in triode vs. 5.7 in pentode, the triode actually has more usable power. It gets bigger. It hits harder. This 300B amp is a testament to the paradoxical power of the high distortion triode over the lower distortion push pull tetrode amps of today. Honestly, I can't imagine needing any more power or dynamics on these 88dB speakers. The only time 400 watts would be somewhat entertaining compared to this is after a few beers and I've had a few beers and have zero desire to turn the music up. That actually makes sense, but that's another conversation for another time.

Also knowing that two pair of tubes broke during the relentless treatment to make this single pair possible is a real testament to the dedication and drive of Don and Roger at Cryotone. These guys are so serious it's just fun!

I am pleased to say that they have a Zen Triode amplifier of their own to play with.  It is a bonding element that keeps us on the same page and is also required to develop the process for SE84UFO Cryotone tube compliments that are now available on their site.  

So we're about 2 hours into it now, with the Cryotone in Sarah and the space pop is ultra high.  Space pop is when sounds pop from 3D space.  It's a form of extreme presence and speed and resolution and focus.  The presence is just borderline real.  I keep moving so I don't get in the musicians way.  I'm right on stage with many recordings using these tubes.  If you go in the next room it will sound and feel like real musicians are in the other room.  It's spooky.  

So fast forward to the inevitable thought puzzle... which tube to get.  Here's how I see it... if you have the budget to afford the WE300B tubes then you can afford the Cryotone 300B as well.  Get both.  You'll be done.  Endless hours of fascination going between the two and trying to wrap you head around which is "better" and no worries about much else out there sounding as good.

I am leaning heavily towards shipping the amp with "backup" tubes, the ones I like so much from China, so that when the amp is shipped it has a full tube compliment.  Don't worry, they will be good enough that I won't really care if you listen to anything else or not.  That said, they will be a back up pair or just something different to enjoy when you get in the mood to switch things up.  Randy and I really enjoyed tasting the different 300B tubes in our collection ranging from $60 each to $850 each.  We know that everyone is going to end up buying the WE300B or Cryotone 300B tubes but for those on a budget witch is many of us, the sleeper China tubes can get you through the first year easily.

Quote:


I was referring to the idea that reel to reel was more truth than other recorded medium, that's  what I got from Steve's comment. That he believed magnetic tape was a supreme truth. I disagreed with that and countered that by definition that ultimate truth was really only available live. I then also indicated that I believe there are two truths. Recorded Music with the studio and microphones processing the sounds whether they have been recording digitally or with a complete analog chain to hard drive, disc or tape and then secondly what I consider the naked truth. I may prefer one over to the other as an experience but I acknowledge we can reach an emotional plateau with either. I just stated live music is more an ultimate truth and the other is a recording of the truth not the actual truth. That truth can pretty much suck live or on disk.

What you say about live performances being a crapshoot is absolutely verdad, but the same applies to recorded sound. Nothing is more telling than the original source. In the studio you CAN make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Personnally I love when Steve is thinking loud.
I said on some other forum that an on going chit chat between Steve and Nelson Pass would be great to listen to !

The band playing was good. The climate undistracting. All cognitive interactions pleasant. An unforgettable moment. 1st truth true.
https://youtu.be/FyyCJN3aQ5M

Quote:
 2nd truth true.

Quote:


Thanks for making me aware of that.

John

Regarding the Chinese, less expensive tubes for the 300B initially, I had the same thought as HK.  That's helpful.

In the meantime, does anyone have a lead as to where one would eventually shop for 300B tubes?  For most of those on the waiting list, the Sarah amp is still many months away.  Will Decware be offering for sale a Western Electric 300B?

Quote:


If I were in the market for quality (relatively) inexpensive 300B tubes I would go here:

https://web211.secure-secure.co.uk/tube-and-valve-electronics.co.uk/default2.asp...

and order the "BILLINGTON GOLD SPECIAL EDITION" 300Bs for GBP 166 (about  200 US$) per pair. It isn't a webstore, you have to work via email and you need to order at least GBP 240 to get the best prices but they are excellent to deal with and have very high quality stuff.

2) This thread should answer your question:

https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1637209185/0#0

Certainly did! What a Herculean effort.

Make no mistake, the amp is voiced for the WE300B tubes.  This is why it was so fascinating to spend 3 days listening to different tubes in it to see what happened.  We couldn't make anything bad happen, each tube simply sounded different, which is what you want.  But there has to be a standard, and since we built the amp to support Western Electric in any way that we could, we're obviously going to have the WE300B be the default signature voiced with that.  

The WE300B is more like the Decware signature than the Cryotone for sure.  That's not to say one is better than the other because it ultimately comes down to synergy with your system and ears and tastes.  If you're going to voice a 300B amplifier, you would obviously use the original 300B made by the company that invented it: ). And unless the other brands of 300B tubes are defective, they should all sound to their full potential in this amplifier.  

Steve. : )

As I've noted before the interior construction of the different contemporary 300B tubes are strikingly different. I wonder what specifications these tubes have to meet to be labeled 300B?
As demonstrated so well by Decware and in other contemporary designs many different tube types are interchangeable within the same family and with pin out adapters. That  adaptability may be the reason these tubes interior construction are so strikingly different. I wonder how the specifications and measurements compare to the original vintage WE 300B tube and the current production WE 300B. here are the specs for the current WE 300B tube.

Classification
Moderate power, filamentary triodes for Class-A service.

Application
Audio-frequency amplifier in positions where power outputs of approximately ten watts or less are required at relatively low plate voltages.

Dimensions
Dimensions, outline diagrams of the tubes and bases, and the arrangement of electrode connections to the base terminals are shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Base and Mounting
These vacuum tubes employ medium, four-pin thrust type bases suitable for use in Western Electric 143B or similar sockets. The 300B tube has the bayonet pin so located that it may also be mounted in a Western Electric 100M, 115B, or similar socket.

The tubes may be mounted in either a vertical or horizontal position. If mounted In a horizontal position, the plane of the filament, which is indicated In Figure 2, should be vertical.

Average Direct Interelectrode Capacitances
Grid to plate 15 µµf.
Grid to filament 9 µµf.
Plate to filament 4.3 µµf.

Filament Rating
Filament voltage 5.0 volts, a.c. or d.c.
Nominal filament current 1.2 amperes

The filaments of these tubes are designed to operate on a voltage basis and should be operated at as near the rated voltage as possible. When alternating current is used for heating the filament, the grid and plate returns should be connected to a center tap on the secondary of the filament transformer.




Current Production WE 300B


Vintage NOS WE 300B circa 1952

UPDATE 9/2/2022

I honestly thought I would have the chassis by now, but the politics of logistics and economics is mucking things up and everything now has to take twice as long or more...

So I continue to listen.

I am really starting to develop a respect for this WE300B tube... I think we're hitting the magic planetary alignment with respect to burn-in.  Interestingly, I feel like I am listing to the finish, and it is so much like a Zen Triode Amplifier that I am actually surprised. The signature is nearly identical as is the transparency. It definitely is a Zen Triode Amplifier with the Decware house sound as I've heard some you call it... but it brings it's own magic to the party.

And this damn switch!!!  Boy I must have hit it right because I have convinced myself that both settings are the best more than a few times. Right now I am listening to it in the smiley mode and the definition is breathtaking. It must be doing something right because in the last 2 hours I have favorited tracks on 19 albums which means I have added 19 albums to my collection in the last 2 hours. It's like when I hit that switch it paged the algorithm in Roon to pick all my favorite music that I've never heard before!

See...

And this damn switch, it has a temptation that fools you. You tend to pick one setting over the other depending on speakers and output impedance settings on the amp but you first choice is probably not right. Just a more is better illusion. Pick the one that you initially think is your second choice. Spend an hour with it.  

I've never added 19 albums in 2 hours before. Never. Coincidence? We will see.

I am pleased to say that with this tube on the 88dB house speakers turned up as loud as I can get it without audible distortion has really won my respect. The amplifier likes to play at it's full output so these speakers let it do that and the output just happens to be exactly the correct SPL for my 17x27 room.

So back to switch... in one position you hear more midrange density and presence which means that part is louder.  You always pick the louder. This is probably why I had myself convinced it was superior... But it turns out the smiley setting is so clean and tight and transparent it dissolves itself in service of the music exactly like the SE84UFO25.  

I think the next step is introduce a Cryotone 12AU7 and see if I can get them to consider developing a recipe for the 6N6P.

I am pleased that the 6N6P is turning out to be my overwhelming favorite driver tube in this amplifier. There are substantial reasons why it should sound better, and it turns out that it does.  It means that people who buy this amp can just keep the the 6N6P tubes in it, or replace them with Cyrotone 6N6P if they become available.  The tube works across all 10 different 300B's that we have tried so far with a similar graceful balance.

The input tube is as you know is a 12AU7 and so far I have run 3 or 4 different NOS with great results.  Presently I am using an RCA clear top.

Again, I have to remind myself that I am not running a preamp and still using a bone stock Cambridge CXNv2 Streamer/Dac directly connected to with a pair of our DSR3 interconnects.  The sound is juicy and dimensional like you tend to get with a preamp, but transparent like the sound when you don't use a preamp.  So it is high on the fidelity scale.  Kind of the best of both worlds with half the parts.

Happy weekend!

Steve

Have a great time in Utah John! This development thread has my anticipation level at an all time high.  Can’t wait to hear the Sarah 300b in person!

I hear you. It's an exciting amp on the horizon. The "feeling" is going to get even worse when reports from Decfest start appearing.

Which 3 way speakers are those Steve ? are those what you call the house speaker?

I'm curious about that preamp and the rectifier.

The preamp is a prototype of the ZMF OTL that I did for ZMF headphones. It has a pair of RCA outputs so it can double duty as a preamp.  As a preamp it sounds very similar to the CSP325 anniversary preamp.

The rectifier is an ACME globe 274B which I have found to be a little spongey for use in our amplifiers, but on the preamp it is quite nice.

So from now until DECFEST in October I will be running Sarah with a preamp so I can fully experience that side of the coin and see what happens.  So far the difference is obvious -- the stock Cambridge CXNv2 became denser, richer, fuller.  More musical, more forgiving.  As expected, and now that I've heard that I am very happy with the voicing of this amplifier.  It plays both sides of the fence very well.

And as is often the case, because of this 'extraness' in the sound, it sounds like there is more power when I'm sure there is not.  It's about what it is doing with the power it has.  In fact if you follow this result backwards, by deleting the preamp and having a slightly leaner sound and then continuing by deleting the amplifier and replacing it with high power / high input sensitivity -- the sound leans out more.  Parallel the output devices and add some feedback to further smear things and the leaner sound becomes less grating from softened edges.  Get greedy with the power output and add some real hardness to the sound and loose the ability to drive difficult loads all in one shot by running too low a primary impedance, fixing the bias and raising the high voltage... but hey that's what sells.  Delete the impedance matching device that blocks back EMF from the voice coil, aka, the output transformers and stack high value electrolytic caps in the signal path with more negative feedback and more paralleled output devices and some circuit boards to dry things out a bit more and you have what I call modern day HIFI.  It drives the subwoofer market, because the sound is missing so much that even when you play it loud you can't find the hit you're looking for.  So you add a subwoofer to balance the lean sound and distract the listener from the real issue.

This is how we got from 4 watts to 400 watts with a sub.  Just by diluting the musical signal flowing through the devices with the devices and then trying to fix it with bandaids.




Most of us thought we would catch the Road Runner with power.  Watts is speed right?  We tried 400 watts.  Even 4000 watts and just blew ourselves into the side of the cliff. It turns out the secret has always been seduction. 4 of just the right kind of watts will work and likely is the only thing that ever will work to catch that damn bird.

Great news that the Sarah amp sounds so good with a preamp as I can't imagine running one without my ZTPRE or my CSP3 with the Anniversary mods!

UPDATE: 9/19/2022

Some local Decware followers came across some reel to reel tapes and wondered if it wouldn't be fun to get together and listen to some of them. They've been here before at DECFEST and are devout audiophiles.  Plus they offered to bring pizza and beer!  I had to say yes.

When they arrived the bag of tapes came out and they were 4 track 3-3/4 speed tapes.  I figured they might be, and I haven't gotten to hear any yet on my tape machine so this should be fun!  For those who don't know, this the lowest speed and format for reel to reel tape.  It has rolled treble response but nearly unlimited bass.  This is good because the tapes were vintage rock and no one needs response out to 40kHz listening to Black Sabbath.

The 4 track head on my machine turned out to be missaligned so that the highs were reduced in one channel and the channel wasn't as loud.  Now in a stuffy audiophile atmosphere this might be a problem, but we just rolled with it so we could listen to the tapes.  Since the amplifier has dual volume we just balanced the channels, had a beer and listened to it that way!

Despite this severe handicap Sarah managed to make Black Sabbath and everything else we played sound great!  It was well balanced, smooth, good depth, sounded like you were at a good outdoor concert, made you really love Black Sabbath.  Had we popped in the same CD this would not have happened.

We had Sarah hooked to the House speakers, which is really pushing it for listening to tape due to the dynamic range. What was interesting is that we also listened to Aja in this handicapped state and found it to have more inner detail than the records of which they had a collection of different pressings as do I.  They were hearing lots of little things that were not on the records.  And this is the lowest, laughed at by tape heads format.  

Did it have the dynamics of master tape, no.  So that gave us an idea.  Listen to some master tapes. The two-track heads on the tape machine are boutique and well aligned.

We started with Supertramp Crime of the Century.  An unbelievable master copy I recently came across.  The first thing that happened is the amp was turned up too loud and starting to distort.  I turned it down a bit and we listened to the first 3 tracks and then I paused the tape.  You have to understand that this master tape has approximately 10dB more dynamic range than the previous tapes we just listened to.  4 watts on 88dB speakers...

The sound was incredible.  However it wasn't able to handle the dynamic swings with a 4 watt amp if it were turned up where it should be, so I decided to up the game with the appropriate speakers.  The ZF15L master series baffles were pulled out from the other side of the room and installed in front of the House speakers.  This added 12dB of dynamic range and SPL which has the potential to be well over twice as loud.

Hit play and just grooved out on a deep rich effortlessly dynamic and realistically scaled performance. So it was a fun evening focused on tape where we just happened to use Sarah as the main amplification.

Tonight through some trial and error I found the perfect placement for these large baffles on this end of the room and I can assure you it is not where I would intuitively placed them but when I got them there it was like unlocking an ancient puzzle and opening the door to nirvana.  My first placement happened just as the Audio Gods had some ultra dry, super flat and forward sounding recordings playing back to back on the Roon Radio...  It was so bad.  I used it as a tool and started moving the speakers around.  I was stunned at how much more tolerable this series of recordings got as I went.  As I revisited it repeatably during the next few minutes trying to make this recording sound bearable, I went against my instincts and placed them where I figured they wouldn't be optimized as they are too close to the House speakers, etc., but nevertheless I popped them into the picture in my mind (Audio Gods) and this poor recording stopped sucking and I was actually able to appreciate quite a few redeeming qualities.  I was amazed at the difference in sound from where I first placed the speakers to now.  Not even close.  It went from forward and flat and in your face with no bass to deep and wide and rich and invisible.

So after amazing myself with that, I changed to some known good tracks and was flabbergasted.


This was almost too good a gift to be true, just before DECFEST.  The Audio Gods don't want me to handicap their blessings I guess ; )

This gave me another idea, since it happened this afternoon during work, I had all day to listen to it while I worked.  As with speaker positioning / tuning bass is a big factor and I wanted to hear what happened with music that really hits, so I pulled up a playlist for the ZF15L that contains probably a hundred tracks.  I haven't listened to it for almost exactly one year.  That's because I listened to it to death and grew tired of it. It was a playlist that I used to evaluate all of our amps and speaker combos for almost a year until I couldn't enjoy it anymore.  You could say I experienced each track from lots of combinations during that time until there just wasn't anything left to discover... no new perspectives.  No new smells.

I listened to that playlist on the system shown below all day today and was taken aback at the overall sound.  On so many levels it just seemed to be blowing everything away.  It had me craving the next track like the first time I head the playlist.  In fact it went beyond that because the sound was so much to process I didn't remember at least 20 of the tracks which is to say they sounded so different that they didn't register.  That should tell you something about divine synergy which is what I have to call it.

Between the limitless dynamics of this system, the Cryotone input tube 5670 in Sarah and the preamp and this golden speaker placement, I don't ever want to change it.  In fact I don't have to, because the House Speakers are for my Zen TORII Mono's and Sarah can sit right where she is front and center driving the large baffles.  It will be two systems that find permanence in my room.  With the corner horns on the other end I now will have 3 systems that never move.  



click to enlarge


Testing Sarah... model SEWE300B.  This particular choice of speakers, placement, amplifier and room are so locked it is unlikely it will ever be moved.  The cables preamp and source are also part of this amazing and rare synergy. The large open baffles are connected to the amp which is 4 watts, the speakers are 100dB.  It has some serious balls.


Several times in an audio journey you come to a memorable point where you become scared to touch anything.  You honestly have never heard anything this good so you can't justify rolling tubes to see what happens, or changing anything.  You are afraid to touch it.  It has never sounded this good so you now shift from years of monkeying around with shit all the time to see if you can make it better to trying to preserve this sacred golden egg you've accidentally found.

I think the Audio Gods have timed all of these things to come together at this moment.  The WE300B tubes are just broken in, the Cryotone 5670 that compliments the preamp I'm using so nicely that showed up by surprise from Don at Cryotone , the speaker choice and placement on this end of the room...  

So for those readers who have never been here and no doubt think I'm flowering things up because how can it keep always be the best he's ever heard, etc., I ask myself the same thing enough times to realize it is a combination of change and actual improvements over time. The paradox is that change with passing time is an improvement perceptually.  Anyway this year at DECFEST everyone will hear it for themselves so you an ask them what they thought.

I can tell you I am hearing things I've never heard come out of this room before.  The music is alive.  How is it possible to go from here to where we were prior?  I am simply stunned at how good recordings actually are if you can manage to properly decode one.

It's overwhelming.  The presence is so big, so real... so unexpected.  It is disorienting.  It has to be the speaker placement.  See, it has me questioning the obvious... right?

Holy shit, I just realized the Audio Gods sent my local friends over to get me to move the Big Speakers to the other end of the room so we could listen to tape... which is what started this.  

OK, now it's starting to all become so obvious.  Just prior to all of this, two days ago the right Torii Mono after many years of service had a beeswax flat stacked cap short and redline the meter.  I am pleased to say that despite this, the tube plates never cherried even after being this way for hours before I noticed it.  With only one tube playing it still sounded good... go figure.  These are the amps that would have been used with the House Speakers to play the tapes.  So the Audio Gods blew up one of the capacitors so I would have to use Sarah,... which sounds spectacular on the House Speakers on digital, but the tape machine has big dynamics that surpass the streaming requiring lots more power.

Yup, I hope you can see how this all works... all you have to do is react the right way and it continues to happen.  They love good sound because the universe IS sound.


Happy listening!

UPDATE 9/23/22

Tonight it's after 10 P.M. and that ease comes into the sound allowing us to get serious about evaluation... and for a great big bonus the Cryotone 12AU7-WCL Long Plate with gold plated pins came in today.

The day started out 12 hours ago on an off cycle.  I blasted Foreplay and it sounded off, even distorted. For no reason.  After that everything sounded off all day.  Something in the midrange that I didn't like.  At one point I just turned it off.  But after a couple hours I decided to put the new Cryotone tube in the front end, which should have a profound change on the sound over the 5670 that I've been running.

It did.  It was hugely resolute, you could hear things... but the sound was sharper.  Whatever it was that was irritating me was now even worse.  I gave up.  

A few hours later I put a random NOS 12AU7 in from my collection and listened to it again.  Keep in mind all of this is background music while I work.  If I can't get off on it outside the room... no point in going in.

Things were going a lot better now.  For reasons unknown it was listenable again.  Many hours passed and then while chatting with Bob on the phone I realized that the exceptional Russian 5AR4 stash of mine that I have been sending on with new orders, hasn't been tried in the 300B amp.  Well, I knew what I was going to do after we hung up.

So I removed the PSVANE 5AR4 and replaced it with the Russian NOS 5AR4 and I have to say the sound got organic again without any midrange anomalies to wonder about.  Just there.  Relaxed, musical, smooth, warm. So either my head needed a fix, or the Chinese 5AR4 is starting to bring an edge to things.

Amazing sound.  So now that we're back in control and loving it, time to reinsert the Cryotone 12AU7-WCL and see if that magic I heard in it the first time is now balanced with smooth organic round notes... it is.  In fact the sound is better than the 5670 and better than the NOS 12AU7 I just pulled.

With this change I found the urge that was never there previously to tip the baffles back with my pyramids, which give then exactly a 10 degree angle.

This restored if not improved upon the amazing experience I had with my last update. God it just sounds like music. Better even. The combination of the Russian NOS rectifier with a bit more voltage drop is getting the amplifier into it's design pocket of 383 volts and you can hear it.

When music floating in space in the room is so dense you feel like you could chew it, something wonderful is happening.

Amazing the transition from this morning...  I'm going to speculate that it may have been the PSVANE 5AR4 tube acting up.  That is the current suspect.

When it comes to rectifier tubes, never have just one... it is essential to have back ups.

Having this sound is my sanity.  Once you have had it even for a second and know it's possible, nothing less will do.  

This nonsense that 300B tubes are fat, dark, colored, etc., etc., is absurd.  This tube is now as transparent as the UFO25 which uses a video tube with over twice the bandwidth.  I am now wondering why 300B amps got this reputation.   I guess I am experiencing a fully burned in WE300B tube set.  I didn't expect this.  It's proof to me that the graphine coating on the plates is an advancement.  I literally can't hear the tube anymore.  It is completely gone.

Mission accomplished.

Is there an update on the SEWE300B chassis...  Do you expect to have one in time and ready for DecFest ?

UPDATE 10/4/2022

I have been setting up the room for this years DECFEST and doing some critical listening to three amplifiers that are predominately set up in the room.  These are the SEWE300B as well as the Zen TORII Monos set up on the West End of the room.  On the East End I have the SE84UFO25 and matching preamp CSP325.

Prior to starting this 300B project, I would have described the TORII MONO's as a similar sound to the Zen Triodes but with more hit and clarity at higher levels and or with less efficient speakers. But it was more similar than different on the surface.

I have been really enjoying the odd pairing of the SEWE300B amp turned up as loud as it will go on the 88dB House Speakers.  It just reaches a nice room filling volume with digital.  With Reel to Reel tape and beer it runs out of headroom within minutes.  But that's where the 100dB Zen Master Series baffles save the day.  Makes it sound like you went from 4 watts to 100 watts.

Anyway, I have gotten used to the sound of Sarah on the House Speakers because it is so damn good.  Prior to developing the amp, I used these speakers with the TORII MONO's almost exclusively, but haven't made the direct comparison since starting the project until last night.  I started with the MONO's and marveled at how clean the sound was, but it almost sounded solid state by comparison to what I remember the House Speakers sounding like after months of listening to Sarah on them.

Still, incredibly good, but I was now curious to do a direct comparison with Sarah on these Speakers and with all the speakers on that end of the room.  So I set things up so I could run two systems at the same time and volume match them and use the selector switch on the ZTPRE to go between them.  This revealed that there was a pretty large difference in signature between the two amps.  So then I hooked Sarah Back to the House Speakers directly after listening to them on the Monos and was frankly shocked at how big the difference was.  They sound nothing alike.  Not even close.

The Sarah is just way more seductive, organic, and natural.  The Monos are more like listening to a good solid state amplifier by comparison. More emphasis on dynamics, detail, and cleanness and accuracy whereas Sarah is just more like listening to real music.

So this was my first direct AB between Sarah and another Decware amp where it really hit home.  After this experience I flipped the room and listened to the UFO25 combo on the HDT Silver 8 speakers and it kind of laughed at both, presenting such a present and giant realistic sound that I couldn't hear the amp and therefor can't speak about its sound.  I look forward to doing a direct AB with it soon to really grasp the differences soon.

But, the experience has shown me the Decware 300B sound which is a pretty captivating signature.  I now know it.  I predict that when I get time to have the shootout between this and the UFO25 combo that the UFO will have no signature, so we'll have to focus on sound stage, dynamics, bass drive, and all the other less important stuff that lives in the background.







BTW, Using the Cyrotone 12AU7 for the critical input tube on the SEWE300B amp is even better than the 5670 with adapter.  I have rolled over 20 NOS 12AU7 from my personal collection and the Cryotone won.   I have invited Don and Roger from Cryotone to come a day early to help Randy and I set things up and do some final listening before the fest starts.  I am anxious for them to hear their work in my room to see what they think.

Steve