NOSValves 299A and 299B owners opinions please !

[jhawk92]

I'll throw my $0.02 in here, but will stay away from the politics. I have been extremely pleased with my 299B/K-horn combo. I picked up the K-horns about a year ago after some great auditions at Mr's Paul's, Tony Reed's, and Edster's. Edster got me thinking about K-horns and tubes with his beautiful Moondogs, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford K-horns, Moondogs (or some other equally good power amp), and a preamp.

So, once I found my K-horns, they saw SS power for several months, which was good. In my travels here in the rooms, I was absorbing as much as I could about tubes, especially integrated amplifiers or receivers, ala Scott, Eico, Fisher, etc. These seemed to be a good compromise between SS and multi-kilobuck tube separates. Board member Sprocket and I got together for a series of tube demos, both at my place and his. This got me thinking more about tube/K-horn bliss.

After reading lots of good posts about the Scott series, I thought that would be a good place for me to start with tubes. I emailed Craig and he was very up front with me about my musical tastes and what would satisfy them. I was still a bit unsure on the whole tube thing, but a demo with GaryMD and his NOSValves 299B/Cornwalls sealed my fate. A 299B was on its way to Craig for rework.

Once I got it back, I have been very pleased with it. I think I am just getting to the good break-in stage, and it sounds wonderful with my '68 K-horns. Granted, some CDs play a bit harsher than others, and I attribute some of that to the recording, and some, maybe, to the cast metal horns. I am thinking about doing the rope caulk mod to see how that sounds, but overall, I would not classify the 299B as bright. I run with loudness on (gasp to some folks, ), but tone controls are basically flat. While I may not be as tube-experienced as many here on the 2-ch forum, I like what I hear. I'd love to do some comparisons with a 299C/D and see how the 7591s compare to the 7189s, but for now, I'll keep at it with my combo. Soon I'll have my Rega P2 set up and I'll see how that sounds in comparison to CD playback. That was one reason I went with the 299, for phono input.

There is lots of good info in the forums, and it benefits us all to read and understand the different points of view. I'm still at the reading stage, not quite at total understanding.