Moderately Priced 300B "Review"

galyons · 6512

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Offline ebag4

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Reply #15 on: December 13, 2016, 03:20:28 PM

That's great news Ed.  As I have said before, while I have both Elrog and re-issue WE 300Bs, the Elrogs get most of the playing time.  Just out of curiosity, where did you buy your Elrogs from?  Thanks.

Gerry   
My apologies Gerry, I just saw this, better late than never ;).  I bought my pair used from a gentleman in Canada.  He indicated they had a approximately 200hrs on them, used as backup.  I have just had one tube go bad, made static noise, the other still plays fine.  Being used I dont know their prior use, but I enjoyed them enough that I am planning to purchase a new pair.

Best Regards,
Ed

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Offline johnsonad

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Reply #16 on: December 14, 2016, 01:56:03 AM
Nice Ed!  I'm glad that you like them! Mine are still playing away though one of them has started to sing to me. I'm living with it as they sound great.

Aaron Johnson


Offline ebag4

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Reply #17 on: December 16, 2016, 02:53:30 PM
Hey Aaron, yes, I really like them, I just recieved my new set.  I bought them from George Lenz at Tubes USA on Wednesday and recieved them today.  Letting them warm up now.

Happy Holidays to all.

Best,
Ed

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Offline Gerry E.

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Reply #18 on: December 19, 2016, 06:51:45 AM
Hey Aaron, yes, I really like them, I just recieved my new set.  I bought them from George Lenz at Tubes USA on Wednesday and recieved them today.  Letting them warm up now.


Hi Ed:

How are your new Elrog 300Bs doing?  Here's my saga:

In November of 2015 I purchased a pair of like new Elrog 300Bs from a dentist in the Toronto area.  The tubes did indeed look and test like new. I really like their sound. Over the last year, I alternated between them and a pair of reissue WE 300Bs in my Paramounts. I slightly preferred the Elrogs over the WEs and they got the majority of playing time (approx. 60% vs. 40% for the WE 300Bs).

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago... I was listening to the Elrogs and heard a static-like noise from the right channel for about 5 seconds. It went away and continued to play fine but I shut off the system.  I wasn't sure if it was the Elrog, a driver tube or just a tube socket connection.

The next day, I swapped the Elrogs to opposite amps and they played fine for about 30 minutes. Then, the one in question stopped playing, so I shut off the system. The next day I tested them and was horrified to see that the bad one was indeed dead and the "good" one tested at 50 (Where 58 is the minimum good level).

I recently went back to the Canuck Audio Mart ad for the pair I purchased.  Quoting directly from the ad (seller's caps): "THESE ARE THE SECOND GENERATION, IMPROVED OVER THE FIRST GENERATION AND FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH HIGHER PLATE VOLTAGE AMPS SUCH AS...".  I never would have bought them otherwise! 

Originally, I thought the test report date was from 2015 but now I realize it was probably written in European date format (DD.MM.YY).  If correct, they are from July 15, 2014 (15.7.14).  That's seems very early to be the improved version.  Also, I believe the serial numbers are fairly low (C1025 and C1039).

Gerry



Offline ebag4

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Reply #19 on: December 24, 2016, 05:34:38 PM
Hi Gerry, that is exactly how my Elrog went bad, static, followed by more playing then dead.  I am unable to test mine so I am unsure where the good one stands.  I bought used, the price was right to hear what the fuss was about, so I didn't expect too much out of them, however they did give me enough playing time to know I wanted another set.  The set I bought this time is new, so I expect more from them, time will tell.  According to George Lenz there have been additional improvements over the gen 2 units, I believe one item was a better vacuum seal. 

Have a great holiday!

Best,
Ed

GO CARDS!!!