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Wavac MD300b and Alon Lotus SE Sigs


jp11801

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I picked up the Alons a few weeks back and drove 7 hours round trip to pick them up. They are a dream speaker for me in the under $3000 used price range. They are probably only about 90db efficient but the woofer is 14ohms and the designer had 300b and up SET designs in mind when he put these out. The Signatures were made in very small runs and include AlNiCo magnet speakers all the way around. I had the standard Lotus SE speakers for the better part of a year and while great these are better in every respect. The standards are pretty amazing at $1000 to 1500 they go for used and should be more.

Well After a bit of searching on our forum it looks like my amp of choice has taken a few hits. I had the chance to pick one up with a pair of fairly new (200 hours or less) WE 300bs included and a quad of Siemens E81cc. I jumped on it given the now new price of $9000 (can that even be right) but this was on A-gon for $3800 with tubes. It is easily the best 300b I've heard in my system, granted I've only had the Cary and Moth in the rig and at different times.

For the past few weeks I've been on the hunt for a 300b amp. While I love my Fi 2a3 X series amp it, as expected, loses steam in the dynamics area and $1000 gets you only so good of an amp. The Dared 845 sounded really good but missed top end extension that I was looking for in a next category amp. I had maybe the Airtight, Wavac, FI 300bs in mind and I also looked at a few F2a on my mind for some reason. I saw the Wavac after reading some of the speaker forums and some reviews and just went for it. The MD300b is by far the best 300b I've heard to date. I can't believe the extension top and bottom (it's only rated to 40hz), detail and tone. I'm hearing things in recordings that I know well that I never noticed before. Great recording sound sublime now crappy stuff does sound even worse more by comparison to the good stuff. I'm not used to hearing this detailed of a sound from a 300b as well as dynamic from a 300b.

On the downside the metal casing i pretty flimsy sort of like the Leben.

I used an iphone which with the flash may take the least flattering gear pics of all time.

Here are a few pics, by the way no hard feelings if you hate Wavac or need to give it shit based on the crazy priced amp that was reviewed by Fremer a while back in stereophile.

Anyone local that is in the area is free to stop by for a listen and drink.

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Edited by jp11801
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Looks very nice. I bet the imaging and low level details are off the hook. Does Wavac MD300b also sound a bit "fat" in the mids and low end like most 300b amps do?

No it is very linear given the tube selection from the previous owner I may sub in some of the better mullards or sylvania gold brand 12at7 type tubes of their equivalent. In a few weeks I will seek them out as well as a few early examples of the 6y6 driver. I just picked up a pair of used Shuguang black treasure tubes for casual listening as I'd like to use the WE 300bs for serious listening.

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No it is very linear given the tube selection from the previous owner I may sub in some of the better mullards or sylvania gold brand 12at7 type tubes of their equivalent. In a few weeks I will seek them out as well as a few early examples of the 6y6 driver. I just picked up a pair of used Shuguang black treasure tubes for casual listening as I'd like to use the WE 300bs for serious listening.

Black treasures are nice tubes. I never heared the 300b BT, but KT99 BT tubes very very nice as far as KT88 go :) Did you ever try to match your Fi amp to a more sensitive speakers? I heard larger Fi 2a3 amp and it was very nice, a bit "fat" sounding but very sweet and transparent.

Edited by faust3d
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No as I gave up on larger horns for weight and size and single drivers rolled off on top and bottom to much.

The better commercial designs at 95db and up seemed very costly, I was not a fan of the Sonist products I heard and never had a chance to hear the Cioncident line.

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If any of you guys are considering picking up any Black Treasure tubes, a good place to order them from is GD-Audio in China. Much cheaper than Grant Audio or the other places I've seen. Several folks from the Tubes Asylum (including me) have bought from Clark (hmm,.. I wonder what his Chinese name is Peggy?) and the service is very good. Shippings kinda steep but he sends tubes "Express Mail" so you get them in under a week (and the less time in the shippers hands, the better IMHO).

I have 8 KT88z tubes in my CJ speaker amp and so far (with about 250-300 hrs) I'm lovin' em.

Can't say how the 300b's are since that's usually apples and oranges.

http://www.goodcomponent.com/

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I had the chance to pick up some Black Treasures on the cheap with about 50 hours on them (less than half of retail).

So far they are pretty good with maybe a better balance than the WEs but I miss the midrange tone of the WEs guitar was killer through those. I'm going to give them a few days in the amp to settle in.

Edited by jp11801
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I had the chance to pick up some Black Treasures on the cheap with about 50 hours on them (less than half of retail).

So far they are pretty good with maybe a better balance than the WEs but I miss the midrange tone of the WEs guitar was killer through those. I'm going to give them a few days in the amp to settle in.

Yeah, my experience with various Black Treasure tubes in friends systems is that they are very balanced and good sounding tubes but not overly fluid in the mids, but take this with a grain of salt as I discovered I really like SE Pendode sound and find most DHSET amps too fat sounding. When at my uncles house I spend about a week listening to Art Audio HC Jota and Almarro A318A. While I did like Almarro A318A I found it to be too midrangy. I loved Art Audio HC Jota with KR 52BX tubes, best combination of power and finesse I heard in a tube amp yet. :D He also had VAC PA90, he had some Black Treasure tubes in it and it sounded very good with them, much better than with SED EL34s.

Edited by faust3d
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