The L300 has Landed

[Brumjam]

So as not to hijack the other L300 thread I thought I'd start a new one to post my thoughts on my latest purchase.

Early last week I was innocently minding my own business when Phil (hifinutt) kindly pointed out that there was a Pure Sound L300 for sale online for £2.5k. After waiting a couple of days hoping/praying that someone else would buy it and not make me spend yet more money on my system (meant to be saving for house extension), I folded and enquired as to whether it was still available. Anyway, two days later and it's now sitting in my system making sounds the audio equivalent of Mila Cunis pole dancing - just for me.

Ever since I bought my Adam Audio active speakers I have always been slightly disappointed with them. Whatever changes I made in my system always resulted in the sound end result - uber detail and impact without a trace of what I'd term 'musicality'.

Enter the L300 - fully 500mm deep and with me at time of writing still wondering how on earth it's going to fit into my custom (read bodged) MDF shelving. The effect this glowing beast has had on my system is profound. It's like it arrived and said to my Bel Canto DAC 'step aside please, I'll take it from here'. There's now the most wonderful tone to instruments - things my system always messed up before like cymbals no longer sound like a digital splash. There's superb decay to notes and it's easy to get a sense for the scale of the recording venue now. This is the first line stage I've had in my system that is not taking one jot away from the signal. Absolutely everything I could hear when the Bel Canto was connected directly to my speakers is still there, but presented in such a way that's impossible to describe. The L300 is gripping. I've never listened to so many albums end-to-end. In fact, I've no idea what the track is called that's now playing - never got this far through the album before but it's just so listenable I don't want to change it.

Conscious that I'm beginning to ramble like a gibbering wreck so will stop now :-) More to come in the next few days as I get more accustomed to the L300.

James

[russ abbott - royds brother]

Great write up and sounds like it was money very well spent.

[khfm865]

Congrats. Sounds like a wonderful combination with the actives. Enjoy

[hifinutt]

so pleased james, looking forward very much to hearing

[Tel]

Excellent, that is one hell of a bargain!

[Cyclopse]

Shows there are some great second hand bargais out there.

[Brumjam]

Thanks all. Considering how good the L300 is I would say it's a bargain at full retail. At £2.5k it's a steal. This is the second one the shop I bought it from has sold and they both went in a couple of days. I'm grateful they didn't, but it it was my shop the resale price would have been higher.

[rabski]

I've had mine for a few months now and it just gets better and better. I'd actually say that good though the rest is, the system revolves around the Pure Sound. It does nothing, but it does everything. It has the uncanny ability to make everything bigger and better, yet perfectly natural. Incredibly musical, yet stunningly detailed.

Frankly, at £10,000 it would be a bargain, at what you paid it's an utter steal.

Hint... If you haven't already, then swap the rectifier for an NOS Mullard. You think it's good now........

[Brumjam]

Hi Richard. Guy suggested the same thing but I've not got round to sourcing a Mullard yet. Will have a look at the weekend.

[pure sound]

It might be heresy to suggest it, but in the absence of a Mullard the current production JJ GZ34 does a reasonable job. Better than the Russian or Chinese equivalents I've tried anyway.

Incidentally although you say that it is the 2nd L300 that dealer has supplied, it was actually the same unit supplied twice. The second owner had it with some Icon 845 monos but a young child has inclined him to go SS for a while!

[Brumjam]

Quick update: I had the EH300B in my L300 fail on me last weekend, so I replaced it with a TJ premium mesh plate 300B - to my non-technical eye the TJ valve seems to benefit from superior construction compared to the EH300B - it also now looks like there's a four bar heater protruding from the amp - tres retro.

It seemed churlish not to also order a NOS mullard at the same time which is now in place. Sounds superb and pleased to have the L300 up and running again.

James

[SMEagol]

it looks fantastic, just googled it. (rather than being outside your house now! )

[rabski]

A quick update from Rab Towers.

The L300 now has a good few months under its belt. Despite my innate urges, modifications have been confined to bit of tube rolling and the power cable. I have, after a bit of swapping, retained the original 300B in the power supply. Short of a WE (that might not make any difference anyway) it works superbly. I have also retained the original tubes in the voltage splitter, because close matching is going to be more important than any sonic qualities here.

The regulator has been changed for an early, metal-base Mullard as have voltage reg tubes. The signal tubes are now two matched pairs of Telefunken ECC82s. The power cable is Kondo (humour me, please).

Actually, the main thing is that it's had about four months of run time.

How does it sound?

Incredible. It possibly lacks the 'bite' and 'sheen' of some of the best Kondos, but it is incredibly natural. It deals with any source at all (including disgusting MP3s) and makes them all sound beautifully listenable. The bass is tight as a duck's chuff, but deep and clean. Mids are just slightly forward (which I love) and the top end is as clean as a freshly-washed mother superior.

It adds masses, but you never realise that it does. I have a home-built passive here at the moment, but when I say home-built', it's an experiment using a Seiden stepped attenuator with Charcroft Z-foil resistors that I put together for someone and am 'running in'. Leaving out the labour costs, it's hardly a cheap jobbie. Much as I shouldn't say it, the L300 utterly destroys it. As clean and open sounding, but somehow bigger and bolder without being in the least bit 'false'.

It's an absolute masterpiece. I haven't even thought about internal wiring or anything else obscene yet, but in its current valve spec, I'd happily put it up against just about anything I've ever heard.

Despite the rest, I'd say that my whole system revolves around it. It's absolutely the best piece of equipment I have ever been lucky enough to be able to buy.

[browellm]

Fantastic, guys. In hifi land, there is very little as satisfying as finding a really, really well sorted active pre that works well in your system.

[wickerman68]

Tis a beautiful beast too

[rabski]

Tis a beautiful beast too

Actually, I have to disagree.

The designer and I have discussed this a few times . Personally, I think it's utterly minging. However, for the way it sounds I'd be happy if it looked like a Damien Hirst rotting cow head. It really is that good.

[bigdur]

I like the look of it myself. Have you considered that you lack any taste Richard?

[browellm]

It certainly makes a statement

[wickerman68]

I think his name says it all..(not his real name of course)

I like the look of it myself. Have you considered that you lack any taste Richard?

[wickerman68]

Minging?