User Feedback for Sophia Electric™ 300B Mesh Plate Tubes - By Daniele Coen (2003)

I bought a pair of Sophia Electric 300B mesh tubes second hand on Audiogon and installed on my Audion Golden Night monoblocks.

Finally I found time enough to evaluate the sound of Sophia Electric tubes in comparison with JJ Tesla I had before.

I was really impressed!

The first thing I heard was much more detail and life in the sound; much better soundstage, in depth, height and width.

It took me more time and records to understand that the bass was there as before, even more controlled and articulated, and overall sense of power was much more than what you would expect from 10 Watt.

They recall me the sound of 2A3 and 45 tubes, very refined, but with the power of 300B. It would be impossible to drive my 89db sensitivity ribbons with 2 or 3 Watt.

My loudspeakers are made by RES (www.resaudio.it) after my design and are very revealing and transparent, but easy to drive. Nevertheless they need at least 7 Watt in a small room, so these tubes really open a new window on my musical  landscape.

Voices both male and female are richer and better tuned: it is a delight!

Rhythm is tight and percussions are easy to see in the soundstage.

Complicated musical texture is more understandable and the contribution of each instrument is easy to distinguish from pitch, colour and location in the sound stage.

As an overall impression I would say that they added to the sound as much as the change from Audion Silver Night to Golden Night, but the cost of this enhancement is 15 times less.

Best regards

Daniele Coen
Via Digione 7
42100 Reggio Emilia
ITALY