While I’m no fan of violence, someone needs to take the idea that 300B-based amps are soft and wooly out behind the barn and shoot it.
Triode Corporation was founded in Koshigaya Saitama, Japan by its President Mr. Junichi Yamazaki in 1994. While the company makes a large line of ‘afforabley priced’ tube gear, Yamazaki began focusing on higher end designs with the MUSASHI and TRZ-300W in 2019 followed by the JUNONE in 2020 and the EVOLUTION in 2021. 2000 watt 5 channel amp
The Evolution 300B is a tank of a single ended triode amp with a three stack of large in-house made transformers occupying the back side of the amp side to side. Based on moving the Evolution 300 around those trannies also account for a fair % of the amp’s substantial 63 or so pounds. The Evolution 300 uses a pair of current production Western Electric 300Bs in its output stage generating 12W + 12W into 8 Ohms, joined by pairs of 12AU7s and 12AX7s in the input and driver stage respectively.
Around back we find 4 single-ended RCA inputs, two pair of speaker binding posts, an IEC inlet, a pair of RCA Main In(puts) and associated switch for bypassing the internal preamp, something I took advantage of, and a nice old fashioned toggle power switch.
A bias meter sits dead center for dialing in those 300Bs which is as simple as flipping the associated toggle switches and adjusting the screw terminals as needed—the review unit was dialed in and never strayed during its 2-month+ Barn stay.
Two knobs on either side of the front faceplate offer power/input selection and volume/mute and sit on either side of a display that lights up with red LEDs to show the volume level, active input, or “POWER” when run as just a power amp. An included aluminum remote mimics these functions adding a Dim button for the display. A tube cage is also included but I didn’t use it.
Confession time: I am a sucker for light of all kinds but especially light from the sun, the moon, from wood burning fireplaces, candles, and vacuum tubes, especially 300Bs. Listening late into the night with the Evolution 300 is like having a roaring fireplace with music providing the sound. Lovely.
The Evolution 300 got to play partner with the recently reviewed Volti Rival SE (review), as part of a bi-amped system driving the Atelier Rullit 10″ Super Aero full-range field coil driver found in the Treehaus “Phantom of Luxury” speakers (more info), and the Barn resident DeVore Fidelity O/96 (review). Digital duties were handled by the Barn resident Auralic ARIES G1.1 (review) and ARIES G2.2 (review), the Grimm MU2 (review) acting as server, streamer, DAC, and preamp, and the review sample totaldac d1-triunity (more info). All cabling was from AudioQuest and both racks are from Box Furniture (full system and Barn details).
Would you believe me if I told you that the output tube in any tube amp is less important than everything else that goes into its making? Otherwise, every 300B, 2A3, or 845-based amp would sound the same as every other 300B, 2A3, or 845-based amp and nothing could be further from reality. Heck, Triode makes another 300B-based amp, the Triode TRZ-300W, that costs a hair under $9k, or less than 1/2 the cost of the Evolution 300, and one reason for the price difference is parts cost plus the Evolution comes with two WE 300Bs that run $1499 per matched pair on the open market while the TRZ-300W sports four Triode-branded 300Bs. All to say things like circuit design, parts selection/quality, and transformer quality also account for how a tube amp sounds. Obvious, I know, but worth pointing out because lots of people still say things like, “300B amps are soft and wooly”.
One magical trick a single ended triode amp can pull off is imbuing music that’s sent through it with a spark of life once it hits the air. I’m not talking about some measurable quality, I am talking about the sense that music is being re-formed in space with all of its humanness in tact, a finely textured, highly resolved, and fully ripe sound image that just feels right. Like the real thing in immaterial form. And I’ve come to learn that this quality is not only found in SET amps, just in good amps regardless of how they go about their job of amplifying. It’s just that SET amps tend to nail this magical quality on a more consistent basis than other kinds of amps.
That said, within the great wide wonderful world of SET amps, there’s a world of difference in sound, performance, and appeal. There is no single SET sound yet this shared quality of magical realism, if you will, exists within all of my favorites. These favorites include amps I’ve owned like the Sun Audio SV-300BE and Fi 45 Stereo Amp to ones I’ve heard and written about like the Komuro 212E and Komuro VT-25, and ones I’ve reviewed like the Line Magnetic Audio LM-845iA (review) and Viva Solista (review). These experiences are stretched out over 20 years, all to say I’ve heard a bunch for a while so I speak from this experience.
If you want to hear the magic I’m talking about, cue up “Ruined” from Adrianne Lenker’s latest, Bright Future, released on 4AD last week, and let the Triode Evolution 300 power the DeVore O/96 and watch, for me music reproduction is also a visual experience, this music as it comes to life in air feeling as real as the steam coming from a freshly filled cup of coffee. So real it feels as if you’re drinking in Lenker’s fragile beauty of a voice, feeling its warmth and soul filling your heart and mind.
More than many, the Evolution 300 is finely resolving, powerful sounding, and crisp and clear without a hint of bloat or blur. Sweaters are soft and wooly, the Evolution 300 is precise and powerful. These qualities light up music in air giving sounds a firefly effect as if lit from within and when music fades to silence you feel a particular kind of loss, something like the end of an embrace.
Katie Crutchfield’s Waxahatchee Tiger’s Blood came out on the same day as Bright Future making the decision which to listen to first a kind of epistemological dilemma. So I listened to both. “Right Back To It” was one of the singles from Tiger’s Blood released before the album and it features MJ Lenderman on vocals and listening to the pair of ‘em inspired me to sing along damn near every time. Not every word, mind you, just some favorite parts so I could hear my voice mingle with theirs, in the same air and space, as if I was there or they were here. I rank the ‘sing along’ effect as highly as most any other metric when reviewing hifi gear and the Evolution 300 was a clear category winner, much to the chagrin of the Barn mice (my singing voice is not something that should be heard by man nor mice).
If you want overly or overtly lush, look elsewhere as the Evolution 300 keeps a firm grip on any musical proceedings. I enlisted its Preamp input, bypassing its own, for use as power amp driving just the full range Atelier Rullit 10″ Super Aero full-range field coil driver and Fostex T900A Super Tweeters of the review Treehaus ‘Phantom of Luxury’ Field Coil Loudspeakers. I’ll get into the nitty gritty details of the full setup in the Treehaus review but I will say I also used the recently reviewed Audionet HUMBOLDT integrated amp (review) in the very same manner, to drive the fullrangers and supertweeters, and in this context these very different kinds of integrated amplifiers, and I do mean very different kinds, did not sound worlds apart. To my mind, the Triode as amp offered a similar kind of finely grained nearly neutral sound as the admittedly purer sounding Audionet. That being said, in this context I preferred the Triode for many reasons one main one being I don’t like to waste all those HUMBOLDT Watts as the Treehaus demand but a few to make them sing.
Julia Holter’s Something in the Room She Moves was also released, on Domino, the same day as Bright Future and Tiger’s Blood! I’m nearly embarrassed by this day of release riches. Holter creates vast sound worlds from fretless electric bass, ethereal vocals, Yamaha CS-60 and more and this rich music filled the Barn’s A-Side with stunning sizable delight through the Treehaus speakers. Once again I was struck by the Triode’s finely nuanced control and rich clarity that did not hint at its SET origins. While being a bit of a cliché, the Triode’s presentation with both the Treehaus and when run as an integrated amp with the DeVore O/96 had that lovely dimensional quality that can come from an amplifier that uses tubes in the output stage. That said, I’ve yet to hear any amp better the Riviera Levante integrated amp (review) in this regard and there’s nothing but Bipolar Junction Transistors and Mosfets in its output stage. Generalizations are meant to be broken.
From the liner notes of Something…:
“What is delicious and what is omniscient?” she sings on “Spinning”, the album’s incantatory centerpiece. “What is the circular magic I’m visiting?” Or as Holter put it: “It’s about being in the passionate state of making something: being in that moment, and what is that moment?” She found it anew on Something in the Room She Moves, singing in somatic frequencies.
Getting back to Julia Holter, Treehaus, the Grimm MU2 acting as server/streamer/DAC and Preamp feeding both the Triode Evolution 300 and the VTV Purifi mono amps driving the Treehaus woofers which is not a simple system by any stretch but nevertheless coalesced into a music making machine of huge proportions—Holter’s soundworld is bigger than vast—and fine grained resolving power.
While writing this review I learned of the passing of Maurizio Pollini, the great Italian pianist. Way back in 1991 I attended a concert at Carnegie Hall that was supposed to feature Pollini along with the Ensemble Intercontemporian under the hand of Pierre Boulez perform Luigi Nono’s … sofferte onde serene … but Pollini canceled due to illness. This was a time when I listened to mainly contemporary classical music but I have since come to cherish many of Pollini’s recorded performances including this take on Chopin’s Late Works, released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2016.
Back to the Barn’s B-Side with the Evolution 300 as integrated amp driving the DeVore O/96, I was once again struck by the Evolution 300’s superb control, power, and effortless flow as if its job was simply to pass along the recording untouched and unencumbered. Pollini’s stunning performance and his piano’s stunning sounds were brought into the Barn in living color, force, and precision. I’ll admit there were times I was looking for an extra dose of 300B sweetness, a kind of softer glow, but the Evolution 300 wasn’t having any of that dreamy 300B-added drama. In its stead, I was left with the power and glory of a true master at work and transported by sound and emotion to other times and places. Bravo.
If you’re looking for a tube amp that stamps its sound on music like adding honey to tea or mohair to a cardigan, look elsewhere. The Triode Evolution 300, when paired with appropriate speakers, has the guts, glory, and drive to turn recorded music into a living lifelike force.
Triode Evolution 300 Integrated Amplifier Price: $19,999 US Importer Website: Fidelity Imports
Vacuum tubes used :12AU7×2, 12AX7×2, Western Electric WE300B×2 Circuit type: A class single Input: RCA PIN×4, MAIN IN×1 Input sensitivity: 310mV (LINE, 100kΩ), 900mV (MAIN IN, 10kΩ) Rated output :12W+12W (8Ω) Frequency characteristics: 16Hz~56kHz (-3dB) SNR: 93dB Output impedance: 4~8Ω compatible Power consumption: 130W Dimensions/Weight: W440×D330×H235mm/29kg Accessories: Vacuum tube cover, remote control
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