Sophia Princess carbon plate tubes in the BeePre

[aroide]

I have been pretty happy with my setup.  The BeePre (with BeeQuiet and output cap mod) sounds fantastic.  But as usual, I can't leave well enough alone.  I bought another pair of Nordost Heimdall rcas, and while the imaging and detail are outstanding, they added a bit of brightness that put my system over the top (the Maggie 1.7s are already pretty lively).

I researched and bought a pair of Sophia Electric Princess carbon plate 300Bs.  I thought their slightly darker sound would be a good match for my system.  The results?  WOW!  The stock EH 300B are quite good, but these tubes got my toes tapping.  They are a bit darker, but with a midrange woodiness that works great.  They have a timing, punch, and something that makes you want to dance.  I can't really put it into words.  The best review I saw to hit it right said that these tubes put you in the 20th row (vs some that put you in the 2nd row).

When warming up, there is lots of chiming and kliiiinggg... kllllooooonnng.  But after a few minutes they are quiet and are slightly less microphonic than the stock EH 300Bs.  At about 10 hours they sounded fantastic, with a great woodiness, but still clarity all the way up to the high end.  They don't show high end details like the EH 300Bs.... yet.  At about 30 hours, they have bit of midrange resonance that is annoying.  I'm hoping they settle in by around 100 hours.  I had heard that power cycling causes more change than actual hours of playing with these tubes.

Someday I'd love to hear the Royal Princess tubes in the BeePre, but these will do just fine  .

[KevO]

Hey,

The Sophia Carbons will break in and sound fantastic. I think the chiming comes with carbon plates and using them in a preamp. Lower voltage I guess. I did buy the Royal Princess and they are very nice step above the carbons, but for twice the price, they should be all that.

I recently bought a pair of Genelex Gold Lion 300B tubes. Caught a sale for $260 a pair if I remember correctly. Once they arrived I looked at the tubes and saw a pair of EH 300B's. Wow, was I disappointed. So I installed them, let them run about an hour then played music. These are not EH 300B's. Very nice sound for the price. Won't rival your Sophia Carbon though.

Enjoy your system.

-Kevin

[Gerry E.]

Here's another data point.  I too had "lots of chiming and kliiiinggg... kllllooooonnng" when I recently tried Sophia Royal Princess 300Bs in my BeePre.  For some reason the duration of each individual chime lasts a longer with the RPs than any other 300B I have tried in the BeePre (JJ and WE were the others).  It's a bit disconcerting.

My pair of Sophia RP 300Bs should be well broken in by now, so I don't know if it ever goes away.  Of course this only happens during warm-up, you don't hear it once the music is playing.  The funny thing is that I blamed it on the pair of EML 300Bs that I had in my Paramounts.

It wasn't until I replaced the EMLs with WE 300Bs in the Paramounts that I realized it was coming from the Sophia RP 300Bs in the BeePre.  It's also interesting to note that the RP 300Bs did not do this in the Paramounts.  I guess the BeePre is more sensitive to "tube ringing" than the Paramounts.     

Gerry   

[Paul Birkeland]

Yeah, the step-down in the output transformer helps negate the microphonics of the 300B's in the Paramounts.  (Though you can hear the ring if you tap on the tubes)

In the BeePre, those flask weights are worth their weight in gold!

[Doc B.]

I doubled up the weights on one tube on Friday. The tube was even more quiet. I am going to order another pair to stack on top of the existing ones.

[pdxgrampa]

Doc are you still using the O rings under the tubes?

[Doc B.]

Yes.

[johnsonad]

I doubled up the weights on one tube on Friday. The tube was even more quiet. I am going to order another pair to stack on top of the existing ones.

Good thinking!  Where did we order them from again??

[Doc B.]

I got mine from some surplus seller on ebay who only had one pair. I notice that there are now rings available from a Chinese seller on ebay, though the shipping is high enough to make them no great steal.

[Grainger49]

I took my ceramic sockets for my 76 drivers to Ace Hardware and found an O-Ring that would keep the brads away from the top plate on my Paramours.

They have a large selection of ID/OD O-Rings.

[KevO]

The 'chiming' or ringing referenced in the OP is a carbon plate 300b thing. They need 15-20 minutes warm up before they stop. I have had 3 different sets. All the carbon plate tubes do this in the preamp.

Probably not a problem in an amp, as they run at a higher temp.

FYI -  carbon plate tubes are less microphonic than metal plate tubes in the BeePre.

The sound is worth the wait IMHO.

PS - I also use the lead/vinyl dampers. During our recent 6.0 earthquake... I wondered how the tubes fared with all that weight on top. All is well......

-Kevin

[Gerry E.]

Interesting observations Kevin - thanks for chiming in (pun intended).

"I also use the lead/vinyl dampers."

Can you specify exactly which ones you use?  The Bel-Art Scienceware ones I looked up from another thread, didn't appear to be wide enough to fit over a 300B.

Gerry   

 

[Gerry E.]

"The Bel-Art Scienceware ones I looked up from another thread, didn't appear to be wide enough to fit over a 300B."

Never mind!  I confused diameter and circumference.  They will fit over my 300Bs perfectly, so I ordered a pair:

http://www.amazon.com/Bel-Art-Scienceware-183070005-Round-Coating/dp/B0013J1UOC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410467838&sr=8-1&keywords=183070005

The 43mm ID = 1.69 inches > 1 5/8 inches. 

Gerry