A Note on Break in with Elrog 300B tubes

Elrog 300B tubes orientation notes

As many of our customers get their Elrog 300B tubes from True Audiophile a couple points seem to come up often enough that we wanted to cover them.

Firstly, and yes, for experienced users this might seem obvious but we've had customers who've owned their 300B amps for 20 years get confused. As you can see from he base two pins are larger than the other pins. This must correspond to the same in the tube base or you could plug them in backwards and poof! there goes your tube and investment. So its ok to take care when double checking the orientation.

Next is questions about breaking in the ER300B tubes.

Although the factory runs the tubes for 24 hours, we suggest getting to the magical 100 hours for full benefit. During this time our tech recommends thermal 'cycling' the tube. IE running it for hours then turning it off for 10 minutes. The back on and running it. You don't have to do this but apparently the metals form better this way.

Elrog 300B's arrive again!

Elrog 300B tubes at True Audiophile

Matched pair of Elrog 300B tubes at True Audiophile

Elrog 300B Vacuum Tubes are redefining what people expect from a 300B. Worldwide raves continue to come in every day. From headphone amp users to those who considered various tube types to be the best suddenly proclaim the Elrog 300B more of everything they ever imagined after hearing them.

From True Audiophile customers:

"The Elrog ER-300B changes the picture for me. This is the best sounding output tube I ever listened to!..."

" I have to tell you, I was so taken by what I was hearing, it felt like I was being glued to my seat."

From a Head-Fi review of the Woo Audio amp by Fririce0003 ... the Elrog, oh my, it's just about ruined every 300B I had previously heard. It did everything right, I thought, without compromising. There was spade loads of detail, plenty of soundstage both width, depth and height. But what struck me most was the tonality and speed of this tube, the notes had plenty of weight to them and the leading edges and texturing were top notch. The tone of the tube was very well balanced and neutral, not detached like the EML either, the bass was fast and punchy, the mids were full and lush and the highs were crisp with a nice amount of sparkle. Now I can see why they sold out before they even shipped down here in Aus.

Our recent order is completely sold out but we have a new order coming the end of January. Time to pre-order to guarantee yourself a pair.

A Life that Benefited Us All

David Graebener Rest in Peace

All Audiophiles throughout the world have been touched by David Graebener whether they ever knew it or not. David had been designing speakers since the early 1970s for the company he helped create, SpeakerLab. He was a speaker genius with a gentle soul.

Our owner met David sometime in the late 1970s when he began helping create SpeakerLab's advertising. He talked about being very, very nervous (and too young to drink to calm those nerves) and took the first ad to David for approval. He went to the door of David's studio which was named "The Pit". David opened the door in a bathrobe, looked at our owner, showed him the table, then went to the refrigerator and opened the freezer. Then he looked at our owner for a few moments and said, "Tequila?"

David was not only a genius but had the driest sense of humor west of the Thames. He frequently spoke in cadences only experienced in R. Cumb or S Clay Wilson comics.

In another instance, our owner was interested in car stereo and David quietly escorted him to his Datsun 1600. They climbed in the Datsun sport car and David turned on the stereo. Within the first couple notes, it seemed like the car was speeding down a virtual highway even though it didn't move. After a messmerizing 20 minutes David turned the key and the music went silent. He casually showed our owner the home amp that was built into the firewall and the extra alternator it took to run the system which was all SpeakerLab components including a pair of large horns for the highs.

After SpeakerLab David went onto amass probably more speaker patents that any speaker designer in the world. He was commissioned by Boeing to design a sound chamber like a wind tunnel. To do this David invented the continuous ribbons that eventually became Bohlender/Graebener.

David was always freelancing and his feats included holographic sound in the 80s. Again, our owner went to visit David who at this time was working behind his house in a small garage turned into a speaker/sound studio. David showed him in and said he was going to do a demonstration of what he was working on. As David was still talking our owner heard someone knocking on the door and mentioned perhaps David's wife needed him. David looked at the door and walked over. Then turned to our owner and smiled. The demo had already begun and it was shocking.

Eventually David landed at Wisdom Audio and perfected the planar magnetic panel that he had been toying with since the 1970s. This final achievement allowed the panels to be 99-100dB efficient and stackable. Naturally, they came with subs that went lower than anyone had heard and tighter and more accurate.

All of us in audio owe a debt to David. If he never existed we wouldn't have many of the speaker technologies we take for granted and many others couldn't have been developed using his ideas as a spring board.

We will all miss you David. Thank you for wonderful audio life. David passed today at his home in the arms of his wife. His long fight with cancer over.

David Graebener 2007