Stephe, Thank you for another very good video. Given the low availability of the now out of production Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z, and also the high pricing of the current production version of the Western Electric 300B, another good tube to consider would be the Czech KR 300B.

I appreciate a comparison of tubes in a specific circuit/operating conditions with some measurement to augment listening impressions. As opposed to the many internet opinions that have way to many variables to be of practical value. Kudos.

Thanks for your honest and useful info. It really helps me.

Thanks for another great video review combing subjective and objective testing... Merry Christmas, you now have an extra $1,500 to spend on presents instead of WE tubes!

Excited to get my Shuggies and get my 300b Amp going!

In some areas you definitely get what you paid for. I found in the audio world it almost seems like that is seldom the case. There's an absolute diminishing returns. I enjoy the fact that you offer subjective opinion as well as objective testing. I especially like that you perform the subjective test before the objective test. Thank you for that. They may not be the same as what you have but I did find the 300B-Z on Amazon amazingly. As well as parts connection like you said

Hello Thank you very much - I was waiting for the information. Kind regards Henry

Been waiting for this. Thank you! I noticed the WE datasheet recommends ac powered heaters, which I found interesting. That said I doubt I’ll run out and buy a pair. 14:46

Stephe, this one is going to ruffle some feathers! I love it. The Hi-Fi world needs honesty and integrity right now. You are pulling no punches!!! I have so much faith in your ideas, engineering, findings. Keep up the good work! Keep knocking down those ivory towers! 😂

I wish you have Takatsuki as well there. Will be very interesting review! Thanks for great content!

Thanks Stephe.. Charles from WE should see this.. I just upgraded to those 300B Black Glass Shuggies a couple of months ago (from very old standard Shuggies..)

I have a lot of extreme value audio equipment that I paid little or nothing for. the price of this stuff nowadays is amazing. great video. thanks

Thank you for a very worthwhile review

So interesting :) I humbly suggest you try some Monteverdi Madrigals in addition to your usual testing fair. Very clean and pure with rich dissonances and varied resolution. You'll find them in vinyl or stream, 9 famous "books" made over a lifetime, something in there you will love.

Kool stuff Stephe, I have a few different 300B's, Full Music, Psvane, KR, and EML's. I've been wanting to try the repo WE's but haven't yet. Maybe I'll skip em. Anyway my faves are the KR and EML's. I have 5 pairs of EML 300B and 2A3 tubes that I bought from George over the year. To me they always sound and perform the best. (the KR's are 20 years old and perform and sound like new) Giddy Up

Thanks for the video! Hoping someone lends you some Cryotones and we get a video from you about them

I had watched this a while back, but it was on a mobile device. I waited to respond until I had a keyboard in front of me, but anyway, THIS comparison just put an ear to ear smile on my face and to reiterate as another pointed out below, you don't always get what you pair for in the audiophile realm. This is a great example of that. Here you pay through the nose for, what supposedly are the best, 300b tubes out there. Yet, the Chinese ones beat them out by a long shot and are no where near the price. This was something I knew all along with speakers as I had always felt that the higher you go in price, the more seldom it is that you get what you pay for. I am also a believer in diminishing returns and I really don't think you are going to get dramatic increases in performance with esoteric speakers that cost 10's of thousands of dollars or even more. Heck, I have seen some speakers cost more than $100,000! But one has to think how much better is that over a speaker that costs $10,000 or even $1000? It is very subjective too. Yes, I have heard speakers in the over $1000 to $3000 range, and I was hard pressed to say they were much better than speakers I heard in the $300 to $500 range. But getting back to the tubes here. This is one reason why Skunkie's channel has become one of my favorite places to come to when it comes to learning more about tube audio. She really gets into the details and measuring. She tests both the old analog way and then using the computer. The proof is right there. As it is, I am very much interested in building her EL34 amplifier design, but with perhaps having the capability to also run KT-88's. This was a GREAT comparison! Even though it is doubtful I would ever build a 300b amp, at least I know now which tubes to use. Or rather which ones to avoid.

Great test. How about an episode on testing the main 300B tubes available, at different price ranges. I have Shuguang (they made Golden Dragon I think) 300B tubes on my amp and they still work, though weaker but ok after more than 15 years of regular use.. I've just bought a pair of Psvane to replace them. I'm curious to see the difference. Great work Skunkie.

Might want to take a look at PSvane for 300B's.

You really ought to try the JJ 300B tubes. I've also used Emission Labs tubes (45's, not 300B's) and they are spectacular.

Hi Steph. If you can get a hold of some Psvane Acme 300B tubes… they are great tubes not cheap… but not as much as the WE.

Thanks to this review I ordered a pair of the Shuguang NOS Treasure 300B-Zs, which should arrive some time next week. I have an OldChen 845A Class A Standard Version, fitted with a pair each 6SN7s, 300Bs and 845s, all entry-level Psvanes. Earlier I replaced the stock 6SN7s with a pair of Shuguang CV181-Z black bottles. Sound improvement was instantaneous: deeper bass, fruitier mids and smoother highs with no loss of details. I guess the 300Bs in my OldChen serve as an intermediate amplification stage. Thus I wonder whether upgrading those would bring improvements as obvious as replacing the pre-stage ones. Your expert comment would be appreciated.

I already paid $1499 for a pair of Western Electric 300B production tube before I watch this video. Hopefully they work on my Decware Sarah. I wish I watched your video earier.

Thanks for this video. Do you think I should have the output on my DAC on the high side and the input on my 300B amp lower or vice-versa?

Bought some 2A-3 Shuguang (10) in 1993 from New Sensor if I recollect. Still have (8) of those functioning tubes.I think they were about 5 or 6 bucks apiece back then if you bought 10. Good value? They sound fine.

Would like to see Western Electric make EL34 tubes.

I think Dynaco, in the past, was so great mostly due to great output transformers.

I use 45 tubes for 1.5 watts/channel and they work great.

Hi Stephe! Shame about the the perdy blue Shugies! What's up with their consistency? Maybe they hand-picked this pair they sent you, based on the dreadful performance we all found out about the blue ones?

Hi, Have you changed anything else in the 300B amp except transformers?

Boy oh boy you’re going to tick off the Golden Ear crowd from Audiogon among other places. What you speak is Audio HERESY on par with the reviews from Audio Science Review. Thanks, and keep up the good work!

I dodged another bullet, as I was very close to buying WE300B tubes! Have you measured/listened to Gold Lion PX300B tubes? ($200). I think it sounds great.

I wonder how the ShuGuang and WE tubes used in this comparison would compare emission wise in a valve tester. Maybe the WE tubes had a few more hours on them.

I tried the WE300b as driver tubes in my Cayin CS845a. They are the worst performing 300b driver tubes I’ve ever tried. They yield about twice the distortion as the others I’ve tried. Others include stock cheap shugang, elrog 300b and linlai we300b. I kept the WE tubes thinking they might be good performers if I ever built an amp like yours where they are output instead of drivers tubes.

The higher grade components in the amp, the easier it is to hear the differences in tubes.

Hi Stephe. I own quite a few 300B tubes, including the Western Electric new production and the Takatsuki TA-300B, and it's the Takatsuki that's my go-to 300B tube. It would be fabulous if you could get hold of a pair of the Taks so you can try them. I'd be very interested as to what you think of them. BTW, here is Australia, it's definitely a case of sticker shock, as the Taks are even more expensive than the WEs.

Thats a pretty amp

This is quite concerning! Maybe their filament design causes uneven heating on DC? I have a friend that built the Elekit TU-8900 and got WE 300B... I need to have him stop by and put it on the Analog Discovery!

Do the valves measure similarly in a tester?

Ebay has several Shuguang 300B pairs for $300. That should ease the pain of ownership.

I find it hard to be definitive about the quality of a brand of tubes from testing just one pair of each. There are quite wide variations in the characteristics of each tube so you'd need many samples to be confident your sample is representative of the population (ie all the 300B tubes produced and sold by the brand).

WE states 500 hr burn-in. Was this taken into consideration?

But the Shuggies don't come in a fancy, investment-grade, $1,200 wooden display box!

I had a pair of matches 300B WE nos. Was paired with cary audio 300b sei integrated amp. I can honestly tell you that one of the worse sounding 300b I have ever used. Sold then just 1000$ then I bought a Sofia pair 300 B. Mine blowing performance. Pie cost was 450$. WE 300 I have tried with my friends Audio note amp as well but it was bad NOS. Matched pair , But waste of money. I wonder why people Pay for 4000$ plus for WE.

Try JJ 300b not too expensive,and sound good.

Saying it how it is. Even when China wins over USA products. Honest as always.

Don’t feel bad when marketing loses. 300Bs are some of the easiest tubes to make, the Chinese can make them just fine.

👍♥️🫂

Just curious ...as although I appreciate 300b tubes are renowned for being sonically impressive, if not some of the best tubes out there...but often are also very expensive to replace or tube roll etc, etc Therefore subjectively - from your experience - what tubes configuration would you suggest...as being the best low cost " bang for the bucks" configurations and set up for say a small minimalistic 5watts integrated circuit?