I have a purifi amp and it couldn’t hold a candle to the original 300b statement prototype. I love new class D as when you get the synergy right I find it to top any SS class AB I’ve heard. But the 300b just makes everything right. I find it odd because it does even the technical attributes better. The blackground is soooooo black, the details precisely rendered, and the soundstage depth of the charts. The only system I’ve heard that could compete was a magico paired with ClassE mono blocks. But even that system while the soundstage was mind melting it was very polished sounding. The 300b statement has much more realistic tone with great texture.
I still snicker 🤭 when bringing a friend over who’s never been a big fan of tubes and putting on Pot by Tool cranking it to 11 and watching his mouth drop. The sheer power and realism the 300b’s presented!
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 6 responses by cloudsessions1
I’m not sure how the 300b statements could achieve such great technical performance over some of the “state of the art” amplifiers I’ve had in. Maybe Lynn, Don or Ralph could comment on that. It’s put things into perspective that maybe just maybe we don’t know every way to quantify all measurements to what we hear. |
@atmasphere very interesting Ralph. What are some amps you’ve heard with high feedback that you’ve enjoyed? I’ll have to check them out. I’ve seen the measurements for the Purifi and its distortion is incredibly low, to the point it’s at the limits of what the AP analyzer can measure. It does have raising distortion in the treble but if I had to surmise, it is most likely low order as I find the purifi a touch sweet in the treble. I do run it without an input buffer as my preamp is up to the task of driving the Purifi module directly. |
#hot take, one of the least important measurements is THD. Humans are inherently bad at hearing harmonic distortion don’t take my word for it there’s many blind tests you can do online to see how much distortion it takes before you notice. it tends to be shocking how much distortion there is before you notice it (especially if it’s low order). I’ve always had trouble correlating all things I hear with measurements. Still can’t really find a measurement that tells me how black the background of a component is. It doesn’t seem to be noise floor. I’ve heard many amps that have an incredibly low noise floor that aren’t very black sounding, other amps that have quite a high noise floor and are very black sounding. Multi tone seems to loosely correlate with this but again I’ve heard components with incredibly low and linear multi tone that aren’t very black sounding (Insert class D here). As for component cost I completely agree with Lynn. If a component is cheaper to build, why are you charging me so much?!? I have no issue if a designer thinks a cheaper part sounds superior then a more expensive implementation. But you better not charge me more for that 🤨. This is something I appreciate about Atma-sphere’s class D. Ralph fundamentally believes it sounds better than what he was putting out before but he didn’t go charge an arm and a leg for it because “it sounded better”. To me it’s clear most of us have a slight different preference to the sound we like. The thing that makes the Karna mkII (blackbird) so attractive to me is just how much you can change the sound depending on what tubes you roll into it. Other tube amps I’ve heard do not change nearly as much as the Karna mkII. It is spooky transparent to what’s around it. Don very much likes the Linlai WE300B, but to me they aren’t my sound a little to smoky jazz club vibe sounding. Roll something else in and it’s a completely different presentation. Last night I was rolling the 6v6s and it was shocking the difference. Rolling in the JJ’s it was that classic JJ snap and speed in the midrange with a completely unrefined top end 🤮. Definitely won’t be sticking with that tube. But anyway my point with the Karna mkII is I’m not constrained to what Don and Lynn thinks it should sound like. I get to choose what it sounds like and that’s my favorite thing about it. Thanks, Cloud |
@atmasphere you can see the purifi’s distortion vs frequency here: https://audioxpress.com/article/fresh-from-the-bench-a-tale-of-two-class-d-amplifiers-orchard-audio-bosc-and-purifi-audio-eigentakt-eval1 here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-purifi-1et400a-amplifier.7984/ and here: https://www.stereophile.com/content/nad-c-298-power-amplifier-measurements
Now the Purifi is a good sounding amp with excellent employed feedback. But it does not rival the best tube gear I’ve heard let alone my $5k Valhalla. As for THD+frequency. Agree to disagree. I have not heard any properly designed SS that isn’t good in the treble whether it has a rising distortion plot or not. to me that was a problem in the 80’s and 90’s. Designers have long known the impacts of high order distortion and taken steps to reduce it in the last two decades. The Pass labs XA60.8 has some of the best treble I’ve heard. It’s sweet, articulate and smooth and it’s distortion rises over 1/2 a percent at 20k. |
Hi Guys, I thought I’ve give an update on the raven (preamp). I’ve had it in my house for the last few days and have been putting it through the paces. My system setup is currently, the optical rendu from Sonore going into the Holo Audio May, with raven preamp and the Don Sachs 300b mono statements. All the electronics are plugged into the Puritan PSM156. Speakers are modded Spatial M4 Sapphires. The system is in a treated, dedicated room with dimensions 17W x 25L with a partial opening in the back. Overall the raven just terrific, it’s incredibly transparent it seems to just add some air and some tonal vividness. I’ve tried running the 300b amps directly from the May using AUDIRVĀNAs volume control, it’s very good but with the raven in place the soundstage grows larger, separation increases and theres more palpability to instruments. The timbre of interments just pops more. The best part is I’ve gained all of this with no loss of resolution. I’ve yet to experience a preamp that didn’t loose resolution to good digital volume control until now!! One of the key features I was interested in is the headphone amp in the raven. And it didn’t disappoint either! Comparing it to my Burson Soloist SL MKII with Sennheiser HD650’s. The Raven is far less grainy sounding, the proverbial veil has been lifted from the music. That same wonderful vivid tone is there in spades, and instruments are more isolated sounding, especially when panning from left to right. The Burson just smears a little bit more. The Raven 🐦⬛ definitely is my favorite preamp I’ve had in. It excels with all the genres I’ve thrown at it. (I’m currently listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan and ZZ Top 🤘) I circle pop, rock, electronic, jazz, hip-hop, and singer songwriter/folk. And i don’t find myself preferring one genre over the other. It’s been terrific with all of it.
Some standout music to listen try Boys at school by Spellling Simmer by Hayley Williams Elektro Kardiogramm by Kraftwork Twist of Rit by Lee Ritenour Magma by Yello Rich by Yard Act Risky business by ZHU (if your system can do bass turn it up to 11 and smile) Business time by flight of the Conchords (because it’s Wednesday) |