Some tube glow on my Agartha.
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Awesome amp! Looks very nice especially with the WE300B in.
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Great looking amp. Most intrigued by this amp out of the entire A&S lineup.
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I can confirm what @Torq said, I have a pair that was sent to me from @anon36506748 as he swapped out his 300B amp and these tubes sound magnificent but are definitely in the ping, pong and occasional swirly sounding stage! It’s pretty trippy sounding actually lol. I have been burning them in with my Klipsch Heresy IV during the day and listening via the Agartha lately with the HD800s early morning or night. As I type this I am jamming to Nils Frahm enjoying my second cup of coffee. I can’t wait to hear what they sound like at the 200 hour mark based on Ian’s findings! I much prefer them to the stock JJ tubes that came with the Agartha. I just need to get past the 150-200 hour mark to rid them of the mechanical noise Ian described!
MR
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Experiencing Western Electric Warranties …
I’ve had a good number of hours on my first set of the new-production 300B. I received this set a month shy of two years ago. They’ve been my “go to” set for general listening since I first got them (my pre-war sets are reserved for dedicated, longer, active/critical listening sessions).
A few weeks ago, one of these original tubes (they’re from the first new run), started exhibiting some noise. They were well past burn-in and had been utterly silent for pretty much all of the almost two years I’ve had them. Once it started, the noise grew a bit, from being “just audible” with nothing playing to “definitely audible, no matter what”, over the course of 30 hours or so.
So, I pinged Western Electric about a warranty claim …
And what an entirely pleasant surprise!
They were immediately responsive, highly communicative, and made the entire warranty process incredibly simple and straightforward.
They issued an immediate RMA approval, and I shipped the thing back, which was my sole expense.
They tested it, found it tested strong, but in their subsequent listening tests heard the same noise issue that I’d reported, they weren’t happy with it and … no muss, no fuss … they replaced the tube.
The replacement came 2nd day, with full original packaging, and then well overpacked beyond that in a 2nd box w/ padding.
And …
The new tube is electronically silent, right out of the box and with zero hours on it. And its mechanical/microphonic “expansion” pings/tings abate in under a minute (the tube it replaced took about 50 hours of burn-in to get to that point).
VERY happy with this and with Western Electric.
One assumes warranties are as described, but it’s always nice to find that, in the unfortunate (and rare) event you need them, they really DO turn out as promised.
So, full marks to Western Electric here.
Couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
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Wow, that’s amazing. Thanks for sharing this. Spending that kind of money on something as esoteric as tubes can be scary, it’s good to have firsthand knowledge that the company stands behind their product.
Now if they would just start producing the 2A3s they’ve been alluding to for some time now… 
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Definitely can attest to how easy it is to swap bad tubes with Western Electric. I had two different tubes at two different times start leaking gas (you can tell because the dynamics went flat and the glowing gas fills the body instead of just at the top). Got them replaced with no fuss.
5 years warranty with tubes is just unheard of and it’s very reassuring for your investment on these relatively expensive tubes.
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