I took off the top cover, and made sure all the tubes were seated properly (4 or 5 of them weren't - not surprising after the journey it had) before I switched it on. The bias LED for one pair was indicating slightly high, so a quick tweak of the DIY trim pot and I was ready to give it a test run. All good!
At the living room volume I was able to test it at last night (kids asleep) the tone seemed identical to my YBA-200, which is just what I was hoping, and there are no extraneous knobs like the YBA-200 ("scoop", "resonance"). I wish the YBA-300 still had the DI on the front instead of the back, sound guys really like the ease of access of having the DI on the front of my YBA-200.
I've got a gig tomorrow night so will give it a proper test drive at volume and will report back.
I emailed Thomann yesterday afternoon -
"Hi, my Traynor YBA-300 arrived today after taking 17 days to get to Australia from Germany via DHL. I haven't switched the amp on to test it yet, but will do so when I get home from work later tonight. I am appalled at how poorly this fragile 26kg item was packed, not even using the original factory shipping carton. It came in a very thin single layer carton with a few pieces of foam padding that floated around inside, offering no protection to the product. Here is a photo of what I saw when I opened your package ....
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/mdeayton/Bass%20gear/IMG00397-20110818-1353.jpg If this is how you pack a tube amplifier worth 755 Euro for international shipping, and don't use original factory packaging, I won't be recommending Thomann to any of my acquaintances in the international music industry. Hopefully it has not been damaged, but I will know more tonight after I check it in detail before switching it on. "
To their credit they replied fairly quickly, but their response was pithy -
"Thanks for your mail and the information. We are truly sorry to hear about that.
Please have the unit checked at your earliest convienece and let us know if the unit is working fine.
Apologies for the condition the unit arrived to you.
We will wait for further information from you.
Thanks and with kind regards"