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What's up with Japanese audiophiles and Western Electric?

AlexHempel

AlexHempel

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I'm looking around for my first ever tube amplifier and am considering a few Western Electric units (or license-produced Western Electric). When I use hifishark and other websites to check values, it seems like the vast majority of past WE sales have taken place on Japanese auction sites. Moreover, a bunch of WE iron I was looking for is only available via Japanese resellers, often at absurd prices ($1000 for a pair of chokes???). It also seems like WE stuff tends to sell for more in Japan than here, even when accounting for the price of shipping.

Hence my question: does anyone know why WE gear is so popular in Japan? I have some theories, but I'm wondering if anyone has firsthand experience with the Japanese WE fans.
 
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I agree to a degree.
It is indeed good stuff.
I think its reached cult status there.
Then there's supply and demand.
No longer made.
Less and less as time goes on.
I suppose a case could be made for certain tubes, transducers, OPTs.
I see wire going for (IMO) absurd amounts of money.
Supply and demand at this point.
 
The thing that stood out to me when reading your post... I was thinking of buying my first tube amp and thinking about getting a western electric tube amp??? In all my time here that was a first ;)

I have to ask, how did you come to that conclusion?

I might be able to save you an expensive pit fall. As the once owner of a we 300b clone using the 310a input tube, they sucked. I had the pleasure of talking with a few tube amp builders who agreed and explained why they felt so also. Ended up having a builder retool the amps with a different input circuit. Night and day better! Imo it really shows the "cult" thinking behind the we frenzy.

This isnt intended to be a bash on all things we made. I also owned some 50s era 300b tubes of theirs and they did sound amazing. I imagine much of their hardware is infact great and well made. More so not all vintage circuit designs are amazing.

And it's not just we that sell for crazy $ overseas. Much of the 50s era clout names of hifi bring crazy $ for certain units.

In the end to each their own. And if one has a bottomless check book knock yourself out. It's been my experience theres loads of amazing tube, SS, speaker technology that's newer and sounds incredible imo. And had for far less than some of the vintage mega buck gear.

So what would you be pairing these future tube amps up with?
 
@PPstereo I'm not set on a WE or anything, I've been looking at a bunch of stuff from the 30s-50s including some WE. It's mostly the cheaper stuff, like WE-designed gear that isn't WE branded and doesn't have WE output transformers. I've also looked at a few relatively cheap orphan monoblocks, hence my interest in sourcing parts to build another amp for stereo (but quickly learned that's difficult). I'm not one of those people who thinks that old gear has mythical sound quality, and I have plenty of great SS amplifiers (actually, I need to sell a few). I just like the cool factor and enjoy the challenge of implementing mods/doing restoration work/etc.
 
Also, I agree with the responses people have given -- definitely a supply and demand issue (which applies to rare vintage tube gear in general). I guess I'm curious as to why WE has attained a cult following in Japan, even moreso than in the US. Maybe there's something appealing about products from another country's industrial heyday (like how many American audiophiles love Japanese gear from the 70s).
 
nj pheonix said:
I agree to a degree.
It is indeed good stuff.
I think its reached cult status there.
Then there's supply and demand.
No longer made.
Less and less as time goes on.
I suppose a case could be made for certain tubes, transducers, OPTs.
I see wire going for (IMO) absurd amounts of money.
Supply and demand at this point.
Click to expand...
It’s always demanded a primo over in Asian. Ak’er (63pontiacgp) sold one WE tube about 10 yrs ago for almost a grand.
 
When everyone in the US was busy buying the new SS gear because it was "better" the Japanese were buying up as much as the old high end tube gear from here as they could.
Apparently instead of reading add copy they just trusted their ears. What a concept.

BillWojo
 
Back in the 80's it was Mac gear. A friend in Houston was buying all the Mac gear he could get his hands on, then shipping it to a contact in Japan. They were paying ridiculous money at the time.
 
I don’t know what it is about WE brand but I had some weird chocks that fetched big money on eBay and went to Europe.

I smiled all the way to the bank, bought the dip and laughing now.
 
BillWojo said:
When everyone in the US was busy buying the new SS gear because it was "better" the Japanese were buying up as much as the old high end tube gear from here as they could.
Apparently instead of reading add copy they just trusted their ears. What a concept.

BillWojo
Click to expand...
yessir
 
Is it just me thinking this way, or does it seem the Asian/Japanese cultures don't necessarily invent things as much as they refine them? They respect things that are well designed or engineered and then determine ways to go about taking them to another level. A more patient perspective. The WE stuff has that vibe for sure.
 
I'm not sure I share that view.
I'm not saying they're incapable of that.
It was a good (read profitable) business here (the US) into (perhaps?) The early 70s
If was profitable there (Japan) in the 70s.
Its profitable now in China.
At lot of market forces at work. The nature of technology is it will get better (providing there's a need/ buck to be made) The reason (i feel) there isn't really excellent consumer gear (read that as relatively inexpensive with many companies vying for your dollars) is most people need (want?) A tablet, a laptop, a big screen TV (with streaming) and some earbuds. The demand (for the masses not a niche market) isn't in home audio (hifi)
 
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