Marvel Posted September 23, 2017 Share Posted September 23, 2017 About six months ago, I was taking a regular route up from my house to Chattanooga, and about three miles away from home I see a huge sign on the side of a four story building. The sign was a red Western Electric logo/text. Finally got to stop by this a.m. and went in a repair shop on the back corner to see it they could work on my 2A3 amps. In a room on my left was a Studer 2inch 24-track recorder, and a two track next to it. I wandered around a bit and saw a prototype 300B amp (about a 12x14 pc board with a couple of Western Electric 300B tubes on it. There was a nice, brushed aluminum CD next to it. Western Electric, capable of playing 24bit /192Khz files. The owner of the building bought the entire W.E. brand from AT&T. He is planning on having the W.E. 300B tubes made in the area with the old W.E. tooling. Sweet! Then, the repair shop guy showed me some W.E. amps (97As, listed on teh web site) that weighed about 150 pounds each, each holding 8 300B tubes. He has lots of items on the horizon. Neither the amps nor CD player are on the market yet. He has lots of tube equipment in there, as well as a lot of old Sony and Pioneer amps and receivers. A gorgeous Mitsubishi linear tracking turntable, as well as a Revox linear tracking table. The accompanying article is not totally accurate, but explains some of the story. Bruce http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2013/jun/23/western-electric-plugs-into-rossville/111503/ And the website: http://www.westernelectric.com/index.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted September 23, 2017 Share Posted September 23, 2017 Very nice and exciting news... it might be a tall order to be able to compete with shugang/psvane right out of the gate, they have a full head of steam going and the products are really good. Even their WE tube reproductions are made to exacting specifications... in some instances right down to the humidity during production. Ask him to start making horns again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted September 23, 2017 Share Posted September 23, 2017 Well Western Electric didn't believe in any down time for their equipment so if one of there amps required two 300's they would install 8 300's just in case one tube would be bit down. So if it was rated a t 50 watts it would do 500 watts at full power 24/7 for 20 years. Then if all the tubes died it would still work well enough to let you know there was a problem with a major alarm chime. I worked with and loved their stuff. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted September 23, 2017 Share Posted September 23, 2017 15 minutes ago, Marvel said: Finally got to stop by this a.m. and went in a repair shop on the back corner to see it they could work on my 2A3 amps. Will they work on your amps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted September 23, 2017 Author Share Posted September 23, 2017 Oh yeah! The repair shop is kind of a separate operation. No basic bench fee, but he wil look them over and tell me what it will cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted September 24, 2017 Share Posted September 24, 2017 We still have to keep in mind the amp and preamp are the major pieces to the puzzle and not the tube. Good luck with the repair Marvel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMRR Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 This all reads like the same re-boot of a re-boot of a re-boot that's been doing various things since the mid 1990's. They surface, they disappear, they surface. Lots of 'new things coming' promises, very few making it across the line. I've been curious the whole time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 Agreed but Western Electric wasn't just any brand. I had no idea the old equipment was still in the usa. That is a miracle. Hope the quality lives up to the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMRR Posted September 26, 2017 Share Posted September 26, 2017 Some of the old equipment, would be accurate. They made things in various plants all over the country. The original goal in the 1990's was reissuing the 300B, which they did. I don't know how long those have been gone, quite a while I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted February 17, 2018 Author Share Posted February 17, 2018 Got my amps back... finally. Not really in a rush as I am just finishing getting the LS back together. He had them hooked up to a pair of $168k Gauder Akustik towers. He payed various music for me to listen to, using their $5k Western Electric CD player. He said the preamp wasn't anything special at all, a cheap Chinese piece. All he could say is WOW!. Me too, actually. Plenty of bass, pinpoint imaging of instruments. The balance was pretty spot on, and there was absolutely no hum. And the room isn't even set up for listening yet. They are building a room to have for auditions. The tech said if he had know they would sound this good he would have charged me more. Bruce 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted February 17, 2018 Share Posted February 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Marvel said: . The tech said if he had know they would sound this good he would have charged me more. Bruce ROTFL!!! Will they work on SS? I want to have an old Yamaha receiver refurb'd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted February 17, 2018 Author Share Posted February 17, 2018 1 hour ago, JohnA said: Will they work on SS? I want to have an old Yamaha receiver refurb'd. @JohnA He works on a lot of SS gear. I think he was just happy to go over my tube gear instead of some of the SS stuff folks bring in. The Western Electric owner is about ready to bring their 300B stereo amp to market, so the tech was comparing my 2A3s to that. He liked mine a lot, and they cost a lot less... You can call him to ask if he could do a regular refurb. He had my amps for about three months, but that's partly my fault. I'll send you a PM with the phone number, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatever55 Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 Did I see a KLH Model 5 on the floor to the right in one of the pictures ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatever55 Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 50K for mono blocks..... One disappointing item on the picture of the mono blocks the meter on the left is not zeroed, yet the one on the right is. I know nitpicking but come on for 50K you think someone would tweak the little screw..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 I agree, but imagine when they ship them and set set them up that they would adjuat everything on site. You would still think they would have them perfect in the pictures, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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