User Reviews/Feedback for Sophia Electric Classic 300B Tubes

Hi Sophia Electric,

Your 300Bs (Sophia Electric Classic 300B) crossed the Atlantic at the speed of light! Many thanks for this and above all for the superb sound they produced only a few hours after I set them up in my amp: their mid-range is fabulous, and so are the treble and the base!

Customer in Treguier, France

Hi Sue: 

Just wanted to give you my additional thoughts on the Classic 300B tubes. In the past few weeks I have listened jazz, orchestral, chamber and vocal music and I have to say these tubes offer a level of listening pleasure I have not experienced before in my listening room. You are correct that these are perfect for a 300B push pull amp. No matter what cd I played I sat mesmerized. Recordings that I am very familiar with sounded new and alive. CDs do not sound like digital 1s and 0s but live music. I don't hear electronic artifacts and not once have I experienced fatigue or a sense of separation from the performers. What is really astonishing to me is how passionate performances sound with these tubes in my amps. I not only hear the realistic sound of a voice or a quartet or an orchestra but I can see in my mind's eye real human beings bringing a piece of music alive. There is a human element to performances that is deeply satisfying and so often missing in reproduced sound. If someone wants to hear living breathing human beings making music in their music room, I recommend they try these tubes. They really are something special.

Jim, Washington, D.C.

First impressions on Aqua 274B and Classic 300B... 


The Aqua 274B rectifier is a beautiful sounding tube period! I rolled that one first using the existing 300B (don't know it's manufacturer) and brought LIFE back into this older Sophia...detail, clarity and soundstage was just brilliant. Next I rolled the Classic 300B, it refined the sound, broaden the soundstage...great tube.

And these are not broken in yet, so looking forward to the next step in sound/music.

System components:

Sophia Electric 91-01 monos
Audible Illusions L1 tube pre amp
Spatial Audio M-4 speakers

Sources:

Apple AirExpress with iTunes
Avid Ingenum turntable with Ortofon 2m Black - Lehmann Statement phono stage
JA Michel GyroDec with ZYX R-100 - PS Audio

ChrisC in Littleton CO

My review after 100 hours:

Voices, voices, voices! The new Sophia Electric Classic 300B tubes are fantastic for vocals. Comparing to my previous favorite pair, the "Genalex Gold-Lion PX300b", it's like lifting off a filter and invite the artist to my living room. When I close my eyes to listen, I feel that the Sophia Electric's sounds incredibly natural and kind of spooky. I never heard anything like this before.

It is very important to give the tubes more than 100 hours break-in time. Right out of the box the voices did sound a bit hard, so be patient, it will sound better in a few hours. The soundstage is very detailed and everything is natural and warm. The Genalex are also very good tubes, I prefer Genalex for some instrumental classical music. As of today, Sophia Electric new Classic 300B tubes are my number one pair of 300b tubes (I have 4 pairs of different brand 300B tubes to compare with). Thanks for giving me the feeling of closer contact to the soul of the artists that I love.

Music used for test "Classic 300b" vs. "PX300b":

1.Palladians - The Devil's Trill - Flac 24/88 (Linn Records)

2.Paul Simon - Graceland (25th Anniversary Edition) - Flac 24/96 (Legacy Acoutic Sounds)

3.Eric Bibb - Blues, Ballads & Work Songs - Flac 24/88 (Opus 3)

4.Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline - 2x45rpm Vinyl (Mofi)

My equipment:

Amp: Audion Silvernight 300b MK2/b with Genalex E88CC driver tubes

Speakers: Ino Audio piPs

Turntable: Rega P25 with Ortofon 2M Black

Riaa: Rega Aria

Dac: Rega DAC-R

Peter Skoglund, Sweden

My initial response is that the Classic 300B tubes have a quality that I find very appealing but I have only listened to some small ensemble and acoustic recordings. No Mahler, Shostakovich or Tchaikovsky yet. With my limited listening I have been struck by how human performances sound and feel. I hear not only all the things important to audiophiles like soundstage, tonal balance, timing, pace, etc. but I am aware of human beings creating music. This was most striking when I played the cd of Grieg songs sung by Anne Sophie von Otter. I not only heard her voice beautifully rendered but I could sense her human presence in the room with me. Her voice was more human than I have ever heard before.

Jim, Washington, D.C.