Charles, I may have slightly jumped the gun on adding the Frankenstein MKII to my System thread. I should take delivery of my new MKII by month's end. To date, my Elrog and Takatsuki comparisons have been conducted via my MKI amplifiers. With my MKI in the mix, I prefer the Takatsuki over the Elrog, the Sophia Royal Princess, and every other new production tube I have tried. I have never had the opportunity to audition NOS WE 300Bs in my system.
To give context to my comparisons, please note that I did not replace the stock Solens capacitor at the 6EM7 input coupling stage of my MKI (this change will be made to the MKII). Also, the music I listened to for comparison purposes may be somewhat different than your jazz music preferences. I also love jazz music, but most of the jazz music I listen to was recorded in 1959 and later. Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Mingus, Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Miles Davis, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton are a sampling of the artists I listened to. I also favor progressive rock music from the late 1960s through the mid to late 1970s.
BTW, the Total Reference Loudspeaker's are keepers for life.
