Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z

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METa

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 3
Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« on: 19 Jun 2009, 10:33 pm »
Hello members - I discovered a great (maybe the greatest) 300B tube and wanted to share a short review with you (I published it few minutes ago on Audiogon)...
Here we go:
I am an owner of VAC Renaissance 70/70 amplifier that I had for the past 12 years. The set-up of my audio system is quite minimalistic and I am so happy with it that I did not change any major components for several years with exception of the digital source.
System: Martin Logan original CLS IIA speakers with updated power supply, two Marti Logan Depth subwoofers, Yamamura Millennium 5000 interconnects, Stealth Ultimate Ribbon speaker cables and APL modded Denon 3910 CD player.
I am so familiar with the sound of my system, that I am able to discern any changes generated by different cables or low level tubes. This leads me to the subject of this review: 300B output tubes.
Shuguang Treasure ?Black Bottle? 300B-Z is my third set of tubes, the previous ones being VAC tested Golden Dragon and JJ/Tesla. I would hesitate to write this review if the difference in the sound of the system after installation of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z was not so profound.
Original Golden Dragon tubes sounded nice, warm and musical ? unfortunately they did not last for a long time and after 2 years started to sound quite dull. JJ/Teslas were much cleaner sounding in my opinion, although not as musical as Golden Dragons.
Enter the Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z: it?s a revelation!
This tube does everything right ? the bass is powerful and tight, midrange smooth and liquid, upper frequencies silver and open. It is amazingly musical, with exquisite tonal balance.
What surprised me most was Shuguang?s presentation of space ? I did not expect that a set of tubes can have such an impact on the soundstage, increasing perception of depth and width and allowing musical images to float freely without any sense of confinement.
As extra bonus you get the light show at night: beautiful purple-bluish glow emanating from the top of black glass enclosures, much nicer looking than a traditional fireplace?
Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z is available from Grant Fidelity in Canada (www.grantfidelity.com). Grant Fidelity provides tube matching and excellent service, immediate responses to emails and telephone calls.

Decibell

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 1
Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #1 on: 23 Nov 2009, 09:27 pm »
Hello METa
I read about the 300B-Z tubes from Shuguang and plan to purchase a pair myself. However I found contradicting info about GF's claim, that tubes bought directly from China are standard grade only, and that only tubes made for export (GF is North American Exporter) are premium grade. Also I found doubts about GF's claim that Grade A and Grade B actually exists. Can you help shed some light on this? Do you know what is true and what is not? Did you buy Grade A or B from GF? Did your tubes have a ser no to positively identify each tube? Did they come with ser no specific certificates to verify each tubes measured performance values?
Thanks for your help,
Decibell


Hello members - I discovered a great (maybe the greatest) 300B tube and wanted to share a short review with you (I published it few minutes ago on Audiogon)...
Here we go:
I am an owner of VAC Renaissance 70/70 amplifier that I had for the past 12 years. The set-up of my audio system is quite minimalistic and I am so happy with it that I did not change any major components for several years with exception of the digital source.
System: Martin Logan original CLS IIA speakers with updated power supply, two Marti Logan Depth subwoofers, Yamamura Millennium 5000 interconnects, Stealth Ultimate Ribbon speaker cables and APL modded Denon 3910 CD player.
I am so familiar with the sound of my system, that I am able to discern any changes generated by different cables or low level tubes. This leads me to the subject of this review: 300B output tubes.
Shuguang Treasure ?Black Bottle? 300B-Z is my third set of tubes, the previous ones being VAC tested Golden Dragon and JJ/Tesla. I would hesitate to write this review if the difference in the sound of the system after installation of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z was not so profound.
Original Golden Dragon tubes sounded nice, warm and musical ? unfortunately they did not last for a long time and after 2 years started to sound quite dull. JJ/Teslas were much cleaner sounding in my opinion, although not as musical as Golden Dragons.
Enter the Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z: it?s a revelation!
This tube does everything right ? the bass is powerful and tight, midrange smooth and liquid, upper frequencies silver and open. It is amazingly musical, with exquisite tonal balance.
What surprised me most was Shuguang?s presentation of space ? I did not expect that a set of tubes can have such an impact on the soundstage, increasing perception of depth and width and allowing musical images to float freely without any sense of confinement.
As extra bonus you get the light show at night: beautiful purple-bluish glow emanating from the top of black glass enclosures, much nicer looking than a traditional fireplace?
Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z is available from Grant Fidelity in Canada (www.grantfidelity.com). Grant Fidelity provides tube matching and excellent service, immediate responses to emails and telephone calls.

METa

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 3
Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #2 on: 24 Nov 2009, 12:50 am »
Hello Decibell,
I would agree with GF's claim regarding superiority of the tubes available in North America over these sold in China. It used to be a common practice in former "socialistic" countries to sell top quality of goods to foreign markets paying in "hard currency", and selling the second grade of the same products in the country of origin (think about how many people in China can afford to pay $500 for a tube?) and I am quite certain that this is a case nowadays.
The bonus of buying from Grant Fidelity is that you can purchase a warranty for the tubes (what about hassle of sending the tubes back to China in case they fail with all the customs transfers, packaging, etc.?) and the tubes are tested by GF. The tubes I purchased from GF have individual serial numbers on the boxes and the test results printed on the boxes as well. So far after several months of driving these tubes in my VAC, I did not have any problems and as you surely know VAC is a very demanding amplifier testing the tubes to the max. I would suggest that you forget about saving few dollars and purchase the tubes from GF, their service is excellent, they know what they are doing and the sound you will get will make you forget the additional cost.
Best,
Lucian

richidoo

Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #3 on: 24 Nov 2009, 01:37 am »
Nice review, thanks!   :thumb:

I have 4 of these in my Manley Neo Classic 300B SEPP amps. They blow away the stock SEDs and the upgrade Sophias I have. It took an honest 300-400 hours to break them in, clear but uninvolving during that time. But suddenly they woke up and are making magic now. I have never heard music like this before.

They are powerful, good bass control, relatively low distortion at moderate levels, and they are very quiet. They hold bias well after 1st 100 hours. I hope they last a long time, because they are expensive, but worth every penny compared to always searching for something better. I would not buy any other brand of tube now after reading so many good things about CV-181, 6CA7, KT88, and 300B.

Audioclyde

Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #4 on: 24 Nov 2009, 01:47 am »
I started out with a quad of the Treasure 6CA7's in my Cary SLI-80--they quickly became my favorite pwr tube, or at least equal to the NOS TS 6550 blackplates.  Then I bought a pair of the cv-181's to use as driver tubes in that amp.  Also great.

Now I have the Grant Fidelity A-534B 300B SET integrated, with Treasure 300B output tubes, Treasure 6CA7 driver tubes, and I've never had such beautiful music coming out of my system.

I'm thrilled with all the Black Treasure tubes I've bought, and the GF amp as well.  I'm hoping that a Black Treasure 5u4g rectifier comes out soon  aa!!

METa

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 3
Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #5 on: 24 Nov 2009, 02:29 am »
Gentlemen,
I am very happy to realize that my impressions are shared by you as well, sometimes we are biased towards our choices and tend to believe that our choice is the "right one" (especially after a substantal investment into equipment, in this case tubes).
In these times of "globalization" we are still blessed with access to production lines where "high-tech" did not reach and where producers of the exotic products that should be extinct by now still exist and where they find their limited products worthy of development and improvement. Otherwise we will be spending much more for a set of tubes.
From economic point of view, knowing that Czech Republic (another great tube manufacturer) joined EU with "Euro prices" as consequence, there is still hope in China (although I am aware that it sounds quite provocative ;-)
While writing this, I am listening to CD's ripped to my computer, processed by APL modified CD/DAC converter (3 weeks old upgrade by genius Alex Peychev), through Firewire connection and I can only say, that this is a Paradise...
"I wish you were here"  :D
Best,
Lucian

WIItube

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 1
Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #6 on: 7 May 2011, 10:14 am »
       The 300B that were produced in China in recent years, even the 300B that were made in the world, the most improved is the SuperTNT 300BYz.

It is totally based on the completely new design architecture. 300BZ is only the technology improvement that based on the old architecture.

 The new architecture of SuperTNT has a large potential space for the improvement.

Crackle

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  • Posts: 1
Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #7 on: 3 Jan 2016, 10:41 am »
Nice review, thanks!   :thumb:

I have 4 of these in my Manley Neo Classic 300B SEPP amps. They blow away the https://peblueprint.com/bathmate-review stock bathmate SEDs and the upgrade Sophias I have. It took an honest 300-400 hours to break them in, clear but uninvolving during that time. But suddenly they woke up and are making magic now. I have never heard music like this before.

Whoa, is this true? Does it really take this long before the 300B will start to have an effect? I was thinking of buying some as they're a good price but damn, 300-400 hours?
« Last Edit: 3 Jun 2016, 02:25 pm by Crackle »

richidoo

Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #8 on: 3 Jan 2016, 04:54 pm »
That was a long time ago.  :lol:    300 hours is not unheard of for tubes to reach full potential, but their superiority to the less expensive tubes was apparent on first listen.

Peayton

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  • Posts: 1
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Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #9 on: 13 Mar 2019, 07:48 am »
Nice review, thanks!   :thumb:

I have 4 of these in my Manley Neo Classic 300B SEPP amps. They blow away the stock SEDs and the upgrade Sophias I have. It took an honest 300-400 hours to break them in, clear but uninvolving during that time. But suddenly they woke up and are making magic now. I have never heard music like this before.

They are powerful, good bass control, relatively low distortion at moderate levels, and they are very quiet. They hold bias well after 1st 100 hours. I hope they last a long time, because they are expensive, but worth every penny compared to always searching for something better. I would not buy any other brand of tube now after reading so many good things about CV-181, 6CA7, KT88, and 300B.

Whoa, is this true? Does it really take this long before the 300B will start to have an effect? I was thinking of buying some as they're a good price but damn, 300-400 hours?

adminRH

  • Admin
  • Posts: 394
Re: Short review of Shuguang Treasure 300B-Z
« Reply #10 on: 13 Mar 2019, 01:41 pm »
Whoa, is this true? Does it really take this long before the 300B will start to have an effect? I was thinking of buying some as they're a good price but damn, 300-400 hours?

Whoa, is this true? Does it really take this long before the 300B will start to have an effect? I was thinking of buying some as they're a good price but damn, 300-400 hours?

Are you the same person as Crackle?