2. amps-preamps
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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. 

 

 

whitestix

Showing 3 responses by lewinskih01

lewinskih01
907 posts
 

Undoubtedy individual preference is paramount regarding "best" listening volume. I wonder how certain speaker designs might affect that as well. I'm into DIY speakers and I'm missing the palpable feeling with my 18" open baffle midbasses than I had with smaller sealed midbasses, until I turn up the volume. Midbass definition is better with my OB, but missing some slam/palpability. I run sealed subs below, so slam down low is there. I noticed @whitestix  uses Spatial Audio open baffles so wondering if there might be a correlation there. 

BTW, I'm running 45-type SET on my tweeters above 1 2kHz and absolutely love them. I realize 300b gets more love, though :-) 

Lovely thread. I wish it weren't the exception arou d here!

lewinskih01
907 posts
 

I hope you don't mind me going a tangent, but delving into modern and old technologies and taking advantage of such knowledgeable folks sharing with an open mind I wanted to humbly ask what function does a preamp fulfill in the context of a single digital source (DAC) driving a good SET? 

Here's why I'm asking: time ago I got into DIY speakers and adopted software-based FIR crossovers and 4-way active stereo, driving amps directly from a multiway DAC. AMT tweeters are driven from a 45 Yamamoto SET (hopefully not considered "junk" here 😊, combo sounds great to me), mids by KT88, midbass and subs by class D. My system sounds better now than it did before with branded speakers with passive xo, but I do wonder if I'm missing something driving amps from a DAC...I did love my Lamm LL2 preamp but I decided to optimize for digital sound reproduction with multiway so a stereo preamp didn't fit anymore.

In the context of not needing more than a digital source, the DAC producing enough gain such that using a digital volume control works well, and gain matching among amps being already solved, what would the advantage of using an interface between DAC and amps? 

Thank you in advance!

lewinskih01
907 posts
 

lynn_olson's avatar

lynn_olson

74 posts

 

Well, enough of the rant on DACs. Addressing the question in the post by lewinskyh01, what does a really good tube linestage bring to the table if the DAC can directly drive the power amps?

A sense of ease, dynamic impact, and sometimes more vivid tone colors. How? Partly better cable drive, partly signal conditioning, scraping off RFI and noise induced in the cables. On paper, op-amps can do an amazing job driving a cable, in practice, not so much. If the preamp passes a quality threshold, yes, it can improve the signal compared to a direct connection to a DAC. Found that out the hard way with first Amity amp.

Great! Thank you for the answer. Would building such a device, passing said quality threshold, be super expensive? This device wouldn't need volume control nor the capability to handle multiple sources. Maybe the device increases gain by a given amount and then listening level gets adjusted down through software volume control.

I agree it's an endless rabbit hole going down into the audibility of DACs vs upstream network settings vs software. And bleeding edge DACs bleed out their value soon after their peak in fame. Yet some more professional-oriented devices (such as Merging Horus/Hapi, Prism Titan, Lynx Hilo) are worth the same today as they were 7-8 years ago (nominal prices are higher due to inflation, price of Cu, etc) and still are the company's reference product. I like to stay among these, which of course are the ones capable of doing 8-ways.

My gut feeling has been there is something else good preamps achieve, and your post helps put this into more specific words. I'm not aware of any commercially-available product that does this and I'm intrigued to explore and maybe DIY. The idea of introducing a tube-driven class A stage to achieve "better cable drive, partly signal conditioning, scraping off RFI and noise induced in the cables" is appealing. How would you recommend I learn about this?

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