FloridaBoy Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 The audiophool industry has everyone thinking there are magical components out there that will drastically change your gear. Funny, it seems that each side of the "argument" in the audiophool industry sure like to throw up their own strawmen in trying to validate their respective positions. The ABX crowd will focus on the outlier aspect of “greatly improving the sound” cannot be validated through the use of what I believe to be poorly constructed ABX tests. In my limited experience, I like to disregard and disqualify the outliers or extreme points of view and when I hear the assertion of “greatly improving the sound,” I find that the assertion usually means some aspect of the amplifier design is crap or poorly implemented, and not necessarily an imaginary improvement. Personally, I like to find a better well-engineered circuit design and overall over-built build quality using the appropriate high-quality parts over trying to massage the sound through expensive caps, cables and power cords. Overall, I suspect that corporate goals caused the development of vacuum tube amplifiers to stagnate during the 1950s and eventually give way to solid state because the vacuum tube technology had reached a point of “good enough” for the consumer with no real financial reason to improve upon. Not really much different than consumer products today. It really wasn’t until the very early 1990s when it seemed that we in the United States started to witness some original thinking in vacuum tube amplification. Of course, Jean Hiraga was one of the early proponents during the late 1970s and 1980s of single-ended circuits and direct-heated triode tubes but with the way the audio review magazines took a turn in the US in the way reviews were conducted, it took a while for this original thinking to filter to the U.S. For those curious about the history and want to read articles where I believe that DHT started to gain traction in the U.S., track down old issues of Glass Audio, Vacuum Tube Valley and Sound Practices. Whether a person likes the Cary Audio amps or maybe a person does not like the Cary Audio amps, it doesn't really matter for this post as I believe that someone like Dennis Had, founder of Cary Audio is a real pioneer in DHT SET in the U.S. since he was able to build a brand on the back of the 300B DHT tube in a single-ended circuit. Fast forward to today and it seems that many of the commercially available DHT designs are not well-engineered and just seem to be thrown into the market in an attempt to meet the “good enough” criteria. I’m not sure that many understand the importance of the power supply, the input stage, and the driver stage in a direct-heated triode design. So many of the commercial designs today seem to have under spec’d power supplies and seem like crap where the driver stage is concerned where the driver stage will introduce more distortion than the DHT output tube. It's not easy or inexpensive to produce a good 300B amp. This one looks interesting and it's direct coupled...no capacitors in the signal path. I have their now discontinued Model 3 CD/player/transport and it is still going strong. http://softone.a.la9.jp/english/Model8/M8-eng-1.htm I was considering it but opted for one Dennis Had's single ended pentode amps. I'm not disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkane Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 An integrated 300b. Interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaBoy Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 (edited) A Japanese 300B integrated for $1000. I posted the link hoping for comments on the circuit. It also runs the 300B very conservatively and there are positive comments on the transformers, that can be purchased separately, on DIY boards. Edited August 17, 2015 by FloridaBoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube fanatic Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 (edited) A Japanese 300B integrated for $1000. I posted the link hoping for comments on the circuit. It also runs the 300B very conservatively and there are positive comments on the transformers, that can be purchased separately, on DIY boards. I just found this link about the Softone amp. The Japanese are to be admired for their philosophy of turning mundane things like amps into an art form. Although this amp is circuit board based, it is beautifully done, and the circuit is actually quite sophisticated in spite of its overall simplicity. http://softone.a.la9.jp/english/Model8/M8-eng-2.htm Here's one of their hard wired amps which, judging from the under-chassis pic, is beautifully built as well: http://softone.a.la9.jp/english/Sv811-3/SV811-3.htm For the price of the Model 8, I can't imagine one could do better in terms of the apparent build quality. Of course, I don't know how it sounds; but, I'd be willing to bet that it is very nice! Maynard Sorry, Florida Boy. Just realized that I posted the same link you did Edited August 17, 2015 by tube fanatic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richieb Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 I owned the Softone 300b integrated some years back. It was OK, nothing exceptional. Could have been the mediocre tube set that came with it, I didn't see where mega $$$ 300b's would be worth the investment for a "just OK" sounding amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaBoy Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 I owned the Softone 300b integrated some years back. It was OK, nothing exceptional. Could have been the mediocre tube set that came with it, I didn't see where mega $$$ 300b's would be worth the investment for a "just OK" sounding amp. I had the older model too, bought it used, and agree but it also may have been the tubes. I probably should have rolled some driver tubes.However, this model is a totally different design. I had the Model 4 phono pre until I quit vinyl and it was simply excellent and a good value to boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaBoy Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 A Japanese 300B integrated for $1000. I posted the link hoping for comments on the circuit. It also runs the 300B very conservatively and there are positive comments on the transformers, that can be purchased separately, on DIY boards. I just found this link about the Softone amp. The Japanese are to be admired for their philosophy of turning mundane things like amps into an art form. Although this amp is circuit board based, it is beautifully done, and the circuit is actually quite sophisticated in spite of its overall simplicity. http://softone.a.la9.jp/english/Model8/M8-eng-2.htm Here's one of their hard wired amps which, judging from the under-chassis pic, is beautifully built as well: http://softone.a.la9.jp/english/Sv811-3/SV811-3.htm For the price of the Model 8, I can't imagine one could do better in terms of the apparent build quality. Of course, I don't know how it sounds; but, I'd be willing to bet that it is very nice! Maynard Sorry, Florida Boy. Just realized that I posted the same link you did When I have some spare change for toys I will get one...just because. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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