Japan has a very good used audio stuff market with Tango, Tamura transformer; Kondo, Acrolink cables; used amplifiers and CD player,... Japanese people sell all this stuff on the internal market. A very few used stuff from Japan is sold internationally , for example, on eBay. And because Japanese people don’t use eBay, all used Japanese audio equipment sold by hucksters - prices on eBay are at least twice higher than in the local market.
300b lovers
I have been an owner of Don Sachs gear since he began, and he modified all my HK Citation gear before he came out with his own creations. I bought a Willsenton 300b integrated amp and was smitten with the sound of it, inexpensive as it is. Don told me that he was designing a 300b amp with the legendary Lynn Olson and lo and behold, I got one of his early pair of pre-production mono-blocks recently, driving Spatial Audio M5 Triode Masters.
Now with a week on the amp, I am eager to say that these 300b amps are simply sensational, creating a sound that brings the musicians right into my listening room with a palpable presence. They create the most open vidid presentation to the music -- they are neither warm nor cool, just uncannily true to the source of the music. They replace his excellent Kootai KT88 which I was dubious about being bettered by anything, but these amps are just outstanding. Don is nearing production of a successor to his highly regard DS2 preamp, which also will have a unique circuitry to mate with his 300b monos via XLR connections. Don explained the sonic benefits of this design and it went over my head, but clearly these designs are well though out.. my ears confirm it.
I have been an audiophile for nearly 50 years having had a boatload of electronics during that time, but I personally have never heard such a realistic presentation to my music as I am hearing with these 300b monos in my system. 300b tubes lend themselves to realistic music reproduction as my Willsenton 300b integrated amps informed me, but Don's 300b amps are in a entirely different realm. Of course, 300b amps favor efficient speakers so carefully component matching is paramount.
Don is working out a business arrangement to have his electronics built by an American audio firm so they will soon be more widely available to the public. Don will be attending the Seattle Audio Show in June in the Spatial Audio room where the speakers will be driven by his 300b monos and his preamp, with digital conversion with the outstanding Lampizator Pacific tube DAC. I will be there to hear what I expect to be an outstanding sonic presentation.
To allay any questions about the cost of Don's 300b mono, I do not have an answer.
Showing 11 responses by alexberger
Hi @donsachs , Will Spatial be in the Montreal AudioFest on March 22-24 ? |
I finished my integrated 300B SET project with two external power supplies. It took me about 40 hours to drill chassis (thank you for my friend who helped me do it) and to assembly all parts together. The amplifier sounds from scratch batter than my previous DIY amplifiers which was disassembled for parts for the new project. And it should sound much better after break-in. Thank you guys for helpful advices. |
Thank you @lynn_olson @donsachs @atmasphere for your advice and answers to my question that helped me to build the 300B SET amplifier. https://photos.app.goo.gl/4LUJVLJ3LuuW32yE7 The amplifier sounds realy good - fast, transparent with deep controled bass, PRAT and realistic tone of instruments.
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Hi @lynn_olson The driver tubes are 6f6 in thriode mode. 6f6 are Torvac brand (probably made by Mulard). |
Hi @donsachs , Thank you for good words and help. My next project will be a phonostage. I have a DIY phonostage I built in 2011 based on EAR834p schematics. In my phonostage I used better parts (air capacitors) and power supply (with LCLC power filter and 0A2 shunt stabilizers). |
Hi @atmasphere , I have balanced connection from the cartridge to SUT. But from SUT to phonostage it is SE connection. In my next phonostage project, I plane to put SUT close to the first tube inside the phonostage. But I think to make balanced first amplification stage of the phonostage can be very helpful. |
Hi @atmasphere ,
Which problem? Can you explain? I saw Cintation 1 schematics. It is difficult to understand capacitors values and how do switches exactly work from these schematics. The first pair of ecc83 works for gain only (10000 voltage gain with a feedback) . After that we have a passive RIAA. The second pair of ecc83 has feedback that looks like the second part of RIAA (that is active).
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Hi @lynn_olson I use EAR834p schematics in my current DIY phonostage.
The second ecc83 miller capacity for RIAA equalization. It is also using small capacitors in the RIAA equalizer. So I use air capacitors in this RIAA. I also use the LCLC power supply filter plus 2x 0A2 voltage regulators. In general I like the sound of this phonostage.
The main drawback of this schematics is output cathode follower that drives feedback and output RCA cable. When I tried different ECC83 tubes in this position - speed, dynamics and bass were changed dramatically. If I reuse this schematics for the new project I am thinking about adding an output buffer. It can be 6SN7 with the output transformer.
https://www.diyaudio.com/ I did something more similar to this (just without a fixed bias for the second ECC83): http://www.romythecat.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=2&postID=9161#9161 |