The Western Electric 91E Integrated

An intriguing combination…

The Western Electric 300B tubes are pretty much the gold standard for the version, and at $1,495 a pair somewhat spendy. The good news is they last forever compared to the Chinese knockoffs, so they are an excellent long-term purchase. Considering you can have an entire integrated, built from the folks at WE for $7,999 (the new price) this has to be one of the best deals going. It even has a built in MM/MC phono section, headphone amplifier, and a bluetooth DAC. Not to mention a pair of ECC83 tubes with WE branding. Fingers crossed here.

We’ve got an extended review, waiting for fact check from the WE people, and as soon as we get the all clear, it will go live.

But in the meantime, we’ve been enjoying the heck out of this one. If you have a pair of efficient speakers, it’s all you need. WE claims this amplifier puts out nearly twice as much power as most standard 300B amps that usually deliver 6-9wpc, due to their unique circuitry.

It’s smooth, smooth, smooth, as you’d expect a great 300B amplifier would be. Remember, Western Electric wrote the book and designed the tube.

No doubt to keep costs realistic, they are using a solid-state power supply, but everything is well implemented and the casework is an industro-cool design that you’ll probably love or hate. We’re in the love column, and in addition to the black you see here, Nickel and Champagne is also available.

The 91E comes stoutly packaged in a bespoke crate, with everything incredibly well organized. This is an amp you can be proud of owning to be sure.

https://www.westernelectric.com/91e