Western Electric 91E Tube Integrated Amp Review w/ Upscale Audio's Kevin Deal

[@rodneyhood2269]

They're built about 10 miles from my house. As close as I'll ever get to one, considering the price.

[@kmd88412]

I have heard this amplifier, and it is astounding. It has the pure Heavenly sound of a 300B Tube, yet with a little more zip, some punch, and some bass that shocked me. With some Klipsch Cornwalls, I was wowed.

[@ventedvoice]

Anything Klipsch and anything Western Electric united should automatically be considered a match made in Heaven. 👍👍

[@SpyderTracks]

This is the most wonderful tube amp I’ve seen to date, both design and performance, it’s just a thing of beauty.

[@shawnpwatsons1]

Wow. Love you, Kevin. Your love and enthusiasm is contagious.

[@stimpy1226]

Built for the future… Those four words say it all to me. I saw the interview with the current owner of Western electric and I was very impressed with his detailed explanation of everything that happened from the day he took over. I am in awe of this amplifier! The big question is what didn’t they improve? This company gives a shit about not having planned obsolescence.

[@toddhupp]

It is great to see a grand old American Hi-Fi name back and made in the USA. I am looking forward to the new state of the art WE 12ax7 release.They may do a KT88 also.American tubes are back!!

[@dmark2639]

These new WE amps do seem very special, and dare I say...instant classics!

[@interesting7906]

I love that you opened the amp! I totally agree with you! With tube amps, the only thing you listen to is the output transformers. The question is: how good are the output transformers? It looks like they spent alot of money for the chassis and the looks and feel. I hope they didn't skimp on output transformer.

[@MrBonger88]

1.8w at 8ohm w 1% THD. 10wch/8ohms @ 10% THD. Output impedance around 3 ohms. That right, clipping at 1.8w. I realize that 300b’s don’t always measure that great but for the price I expected a lot better

[@NosEL34]

😳 OMG..that mother is fukin beautiful, I love the look and display. Inputs/Output options are perfect, love the fact that they added a variable preout. Bluetooth is a very nice feature for easy convenient music listening and other family members. Totally digging this amp.

[@AudioElectronicsChicago]

wow, what a beauty

[@ptg01]

So Kevin: 91E vs PrimaLuna 400's ??? What say you ?

[@allanellis5827]

That is one crazy good looking amp! I wonder how it would sound with a Heritage series Klipsch? Something to think about Kevin. Thanks for the video.

[@hailtothevictorz]

So, to the two things you didn't mention in the video, it's $15,000 to start, and it outputs 16 watts per channel at 5% distortion.

[@MrBonger88]

The Stereophile review measurements are even worse

[@hvg3488]

300b tube never does more than 7 watts. Not in 1930 and not in 2023.

[@hi-fihaven2257]

That is one beautiful machine.

[@roddynoll6799]

They are 25 minutes from me. I have one. The sound is incredible. The admission price is not easy, but worth every penny. They are gearing up to make high end guitar amp tubes. It also has a 5 year warranty. Western Electric is a first class company. I had bought a knockoff China Willsenton 300B amp. At about 75 hours, one of the rectifier tubes arced and put on a purple light show of biblical proportion. Then the POS rolled over and died.. Dollar per hour, the WE is a bargain. And yes, it is also a piece of jewelry.

[@scottwolf8633]

Not that they are available, but I believe the Military Grade 300B had a 40,000 hr lifespan. Also OTLs are relatively modern, with a patent issued in 1996, 40 years after Futterman received His. There is a 300B OTL kit out there, from Transcendent Sound. BTW, the black version gave me a head rush. Great, high energy, presentation.

[@jchborg90277]

So tempting. Is the 8 ohm tap version set up to demo?

[@upscaleaudio]

We actually have the 8-ohm and 4-ohm versions in the store, just give us a call!

[@bobsmoot8454]

Can’t wait to see the video on the WE factory visit.

[@toddcovington1172]

I am sure this is amazing! Love that it is built in GA! I am sure I am in the minority, but I think it is visual eye sore! I know it must sound amazing !

[@artanderson8827]

A fun fact. Part of the building, about 5 or 6 feet, is in Tennessee. It literally sits at the Georgia-Tennessee border.

[@TriAmpMyFi]

I've got to give you credit on the BlueTooth explanation. 🔈🔉🔊

[@lukerestlessstudios]

I’m so sick of anything that uses KT tubes because it’s almost everything and it all sounds too similar. Therefore this thing is so intriguing to me. 300Bs seem wonderful from the few I’ve heard.

[@DBravo29er]

Agreed. SET's are much more interesting and, IMHO, satisfying.

[@brentcollins9727]

Love it!!

[@capwkidd]

Kevin, when you tour WE, please make sure your video dude puts a mic on each person on camera to capture good audio, after all, audio quality is more important than video quality, am I right :)?

[@bobking7347]

Cool and all, but they need to make a more simple version that is more affordable that uses two 300b tubes per channel, so you will really get 20 to 28 watts watts per channel at decent distortion levels with manual adjustment bias pots for each tube so you can really match them on a whim, the specs for this 91E Amp is Output Power 4 Ω THD 10% 20 watts, 4 Ω THD 5% 16 watts, 4 Ω THD 3% 14 watts and finally, 8 Ω THD 10% 20 watts, 8 Ω THD 5% 16 watts and lastly, 8 Ω THD 3% 14 watts. "As listed on their site" 10 percent distortion is useless and would sound pretty horrible when pushed to that point, 5 percent even with tubes is barely passable and 3 percent is just good enough to be a sweet spot for perfect coloring. So this Amp really does only 14 watts, if the values were relaxed to 1 percent, it'll likely only do 10w rms per side. So they need to make a basic non intergraded 2 300b per channel basic power amp with proper bias adjustment pots for each tube with a small indicator that lights up when the bias is set perfectly. Or have s single backlit tiny vu meter with a 5-way switch beside it that will allow you to visually see the adjustment per tube with the 5th pole of the switch turning off the bias adjustment meter. Allow the user to select single ended mode with rca jacks or balanced mode with XLR cables with real switch on the back of the unit, no solidstate triac switching, no digital anything, other than maybe the electronics for the bias detection circuitry and a controlled 30 second micro controller-controlled heater warm up cycle that will automatically flip a relay on and apply voltage to the plates after being warmed up first since in this case using solidstate rectification will enable more bass extension and more speed without the sag of a tube rectifier. You especially need a warmup period when using a Solidstate rectifier because all the voltage will be at the tubes pates in an instant which can harm them before they are warmed up whereas a tube rectifier has its own controlled warm up time because its heater needs to warm itself before it can start rectifying ac to dc, its plates are also more hardy than audio output tubes so they can withstand that voltage immediately on its plates. Now the reason for a 5-pole switch even though there are only 2 tubes per channel 4 total is the 5th position would be to entirely electrically disconnect the bias metering circuit from the amplifier fully powering it down That once turned off doesn't use any power and is not connected to the amplifier in any way. If it is a must an analog passive volume control on the front panel. For the preamp circuit, give them their own bias adjustment too, with their own vu or led meter in the same and use 1 12 ax7 per channel with the plates in parallel to drive each set of 12 au7's then use the 12 au7's to drive each pair of 300b. Instead of only using one half if a 12 au7 and a 12 ax7 for one channel and the other half for the other channel. Having two pairs of tubes with their plates in parallel will increase current output to drive each pair of 300b tubes per channel. Sell it for 3,500, 4k to 4500 and I'm sold...

[@fabiano7638]

What is the speaker brand and model next to you

[@upscaleaudio]

That is the Tannoy Kingdom Royal. Let us know if you're interested in a pair, they are for sale.

[@LS-ti6jo]

The TFT display is cool.

[@N02tradamus]

Elrog 300ER are good as well.

[@DrBroncanuus]

Kevin, you told us that Pathos had new tech with Inpol ??

[@dosserkelly]

Has anyone plugged a headphone into this or know what its output is for high and low impedance's? Just out of interest??

[@scottbernard8824]

Adaptive AutoBias?

[@kmd88412]

When it goes through the start-up procedure there are 30 seconds devoted to setting the Bias each time it starts.

[@wendybeans1016]

all this and no xlr?

[@jdavis234]

Doesn’t make sense for the design.

[@kmd88412]

The 300B tube is Single-ended, so it would not be a truly balanced circiut. There would be no benefit to using XLR connections.

[@michaelcorlet2998]

How much

[@dmark2639]

Starts around $15,000 with transformer. If you want a different transformer its about $995 extra...

[@alaingingras7224]

Printed circuit boards on this kind of quality ,what a downer...21,0000U.U$ .For that price it should be point to point.But then not MUCH profit left... And where are the OPT'S? There are many amps that are less $ that uses WE900B. x2 EQUALS 1895 u.s.$ So for 10K you get a much more simple set-up.That W.E. amp is like taking an RPG to kill a fly... IMHO

[@lukerestlessstudios]

There one thing that bothers me about it. Just one. I wish it had XLR. I despise RCA.

[@genetung8590]

Go USA!

[@audiophoolz9413]

This isn't a review, it's an advertisement.

[@dmark2639]

He's a dealer, dude. You're on the wrong channel if you want an objective review.

[@bobsmoot8454]

40,000 hour life an 5 year guarantee is simply ridiculous. Source Current????

[@TrueAudio]

what is 'Source Current' ?

[@greggb681]

Look at that beautiful point to point wiring... Oh wait, circuit boards on a $15,000 amp 😓 I am sure it sounds amazing but where is the craftsmanship?

[@michaelcorlet2998]

Circuit boards and ribbin cables cant be a real w.e.

[@KT88gs]

To much going on on this amp,im stick with my Audion 300B Silver Night.

[@TrueAudio]

Western Electric 91E comes with a practical remote-control commander - Audion 300B Silver Night's remote costs additional $900.00++

[@hvg3488]

It screams out Shanghai.

[@steimaster]

This amp looks absurd

[@gregj.gotham4402]

Always talk about amps but no hearing the amp. W T H

[@scottchegg1209]

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh! That's all I can say.

[@davobmw]

I heard it’s built in China and assembled here. Sure looks like it. That aluminum looks identical to all the other Chinese amps.