from customer Doron O by email:
“Hello, Tubes arrived and are playing along. I do not think they are going back to you anytime soon…:-) Very good from the get go. Compared to the existing TJ 300B/n Mesh Plates the SG 300B-z have massive bass, they sound smoother, more relaxed, mid range is fuller (more lush) yet clean – more meat on the bones so to speak. Very seductive and un-fatiguing tubes, exactly like the experience Ian presented in the forum.”
More from Doron O in Feb 2010:
“Just wanted to share I put about another 15-20 hours on the tubes and they do get better.
Eva Cassidy sounds less shouty, more details are coming through in the mid range (contrasts between music and silence are more pronounced, nuances in her voice are clearer) and bass is getting heftier.
All changes are for the better. The sound is more balanced and less aggressive than with the TJ and fuller too.
But more than anything I find myself not being able to listen to few tracks of LP’s anymore . I put one side and having hard time getting up from the listening couch until the complete side is played…It used to be much easier to swap LP’s or tracks in the middle.
If this is not what this hobby is all about, than I do not know what is.
Explaining this phenomena to myself in technical terms: I believe that these tubes generate less distortion, especially in transitions (soft sounds followed by very loud ones – like a burst of a sax’ solo) which translate to a smoother, more lifelike sound which is much less fatiguing:
The best I heard in that department so far was coming from a pair of 195W/Channel McAlister Audio OTL mono block amps – all the details were there with gobs of spatial information yet there was no hint of harshness or glare. My JAS SET amp (
http://www.charismaaudio.com/Array2.html) along with very serious NOS tubes across the board (did not keep any of the stock tubes) comes awfully close and that it is very very impressive to me (the McAlister OTL’s are ~US$9,500).”