300b lovers

Alexberger,

You are sure right about that.  I have Don Sachs new preamp and his shoebox 300b monos and swapped out my Cube Audio Jazzon speakers for a pair of updated AR 2ax speakers and they sound extremely musical.  A great front end yields benefits no matter what speakers you have.  Rest assured, the Cubes will be back in my system shortly.  

It is evident to me that Don's new preamp is designed to mate in such a fashion with the mono blocks, connected with balanced cabling.  

Charles,

Thanks as always for your positive comments; you set the high mark for thoughtful and erudite comments on this forum, once and always the most generous and civil gentleman on all audio matters.  It would be a delight to meet you one day. 

I got a quad of the Linlai 300b tubes recommended by Don from his Chinese supplier for $800, which is ~40% of the cost of the Emission Labs quads, yet Don admits that your tubes are even more revealing than the Linlai tubes.  You have to pay to play with these tubes, but if Don is using these Linlai tubes in his own 300b monos, that is good enough for me.  I sure hope they are long lived.  ;-)

As I mentioned, I am going to attend the Seattle Audio show to hear Don and Clayton's latest gear and will be booking a room at the venue on Saturday night, June 24.  If anyone of you AGer's are interesting in attending solo, I'd be up for sharing the room and splitting the cost between us, about $100 each.   I did the same with a long-time internet audio pal at Axpona and we had a great time together, during and after the show, comparing our recollection of what heard at the show.  Let me know if you are interested.  

Oddiofyl,

I did the same when I bought the inexpensive Willsenton 300b integrated amp, having never heard a 300b amp, but was aware of their sonic attributes and it opened my ears to the joy of this tube type.  I have the Willsenton amp in my bedroom system, driving my Gallo Stradas and it is just a joy.  A properly built 300b amp like Don's, is in a different realm, but the inherent magic of these tubes is revealed even with the modest Willsenton amp.  I was a gateway amp that lead me to Don's creations. 

Good gosh, were I to get 11 years out of 300b tubes, I'd be extremely happy as would my pocketbook.  ;-)  I added some fans in my audio rack to ally some of the heat generated by the tubes.  As I say, I am willing to play to play for this degree of sonic splendor.   How Don got 27 wpc out of these monos is a mystery to me, but they sure drive my Spatials with alacrity and I am sure they'll do the same with my new Cube Audio speakers.  

The sound of these amps continues to blossom by the day, providing the most realistic sound presentation I have ever heard in my room.  The images are palpably real with a pure tonal correctness to the music.  I forgot what Don sourced for the stock tubes, but he recommended much better, but yet still afforable, 300b Linlai tubes, which is tells me will be even more revealing.  I have rolled a boatload of input tubes in gear over the years, but will be happy to rely on Don's recommendations for affordable 300b tubes.  By all accounts, Emission Labs also makes excellent 300b tubes, but they are nearly twice the cost of the Linlai tubes I ordered.  Honestly, I could easily live with these stock 300b tubes, but Don assures me the Linlai WE300b tubes will provide a significant SQ improvement.

Charles, 

My friend in Italy got the Nenuphars and has been been overwhelmed with the sound of them. I got their little brothers, the Jazzon, after hearing them at Axpona. 

Charles, 

Evidently more use this splendid octal tube than I was aware of.   There are lots of ways to get to sonic splendor and Don advocates one particular approach that is clearly favorable to my ears.  Owners of Ralph or Rogers' gear might say the very same thing and they would be right.  SQ is such a a subjective notion that there are plenty of paths to pure listening pleasure for all of us music lovers, because the gear is just that which yields the SQ with which our ears most happy.  

Gavin,

Don is licensing the production of his Valhalla integrated amp that owners on this forum have praised.  I recall that the Valhalla amp is one of several that Clayton Shaw uses to demonstrate the best aspects of his speakers.  

I am the least knowledgeable guy on this forum about electronics. I clearly admit it.  I remember listening to Roger Modjeski explaining the design of one of his preamps at Burning Amp a few years ago where an attendee asked about worthy driver tubes.  RM's minced no words in responding that 6SN7 tubes were a very poor choice of tubes -- "better employed in old TV's", because of their inherent high noise levels.  Well, I had had Don's first preamp with 6SN7 tubes (derivative of the Roy Mottram's SP14 design and with Roy's full approval), and his Kootenai amp with the same driver tubes, and wondered how to square away RM's comment with the dead quiet sound from my system.  When I shared RM's comment with Don after the show, oh boy, it was an interesting conversation.  It is true that few audio designers use this tube in their designs (Modwright and Supratek come to mind), but Don does and is doing so with his new 300b monos and my ears tell me that Don is correct in his use of the octal tubes in all of his designs.  Hearing in believing.

Gavin,

I had a stock SP14 for a while in my bedroom system and it was a wonderful glimpse what Don has improved upon with his preamps.  I can't speak to the gain question your raised, sorry, but Don's DS2 mates perfectly with his new 300b amps.  His integrated amp will be commercial available in the near future, but none will be in the offing in kit form to my knowledge.  

Oh my, thanks for chiming in, Mr. Olson.  Don has regaled me with the story of  your joint  development of the 300b monos and my ears at the present moment, listening to your creation, leaves me just delighted with the sound of my system. It is just simply stunning, driving my Spatial Audio speakers. I am going to attend the Seattle show largely to meet both Don and you in person.  I am sure that your room with the newest Spatial Audio speakers will be spectacular!  Thanks for participating in this thread.    

Lynn,

I have a burning question that you, Don, or Ralph might be able to answer.  So you start with a new design with caps and resistors and power supplies, etc. and then you put it on the bench to test it out and of course give it a good listen.  Conventional wisdom is that caps etc take a while to run in so do you have to run in the whole design for a a while to get the true sense of it and then tinker with the component parts thereafter.... and then wait for them to run in again before making an evaluation?  I would think this would be an even more difficult process with speaker drivers... which clearly  need to loosen up.   My Spatial Triode Masters sounded awful for the first 50-100 hours but gradually came to life.  At the risk of teeing up a disputatious topic, I often wonder if it is our ears that break in or the audio components.  Breaking in speaker wire just seems silly to me, something I have never honestly experienced. Any insights would be welcome on this tangential issue. which would give us a glimpse into the design process 

Gents,

This was an excellent glimpse in to the design process, voicing the sound of the electronics, that has always mystified me.  Since getting Don's first preamp many years ago, he did improve upon the sound of the preamp with a few capacitor upgrades... not rushing right to the very pricey Dueland caps, but sleuthing out caps with similar SQ characteristic at affordable prices to the benefit of his customers' pocketbooks.  V-caps in the DS2 are very nice improvement.  As Lynn mentioned and I am sure Don agrees, there are go-to components for the gear.  I know from visiting with Don how much of a revelation it was to get the Cinemax transformers which is proof positive of his relentless search for excellence.

I always think that Don's prime aim was designing his gear for his own listening pleasure, and after 15 years of knowing him, I trust in his ears and know that others enjoy the fruits of his labors.  That you two collaborated on these 300b amps indicates to me that he is willing to stretch out with his designs, involving Lynn and working with Cinemax to get the properly designed components.   Often one doesn't see the whole picture and two heads are often better than one.

I have had your mono's running since dawn and I am inclined to wonder if my Spatial Audio Triode Masters have somehow been swapped for the excellent MBL speakers that I hear at every audio show... providing a holographic sound image, with amazing inner details and significant heft in the LF... and of course the HF is ethereal. I suppose I exaggerate to my peril, but the presentation of the music is just 3-D remarkable.   The sound is neither warm nor cool tonally, it is just true to the source. 

Don,

Oh my, I was not aware that I had the good fortune to be the first in line for the mono's, but I do recall that I was a very early owner of your first preamp as well your DS2 preamp, both remarkable preamps.  I am gratified to see revealed on this thread the thinking that went into the creation of these stellar monos and the collaboration that brought it about.  The participation of Ralph and other knowledgeable audiophiles, along with Lynn for sure, has given us all an appreciation for the bounds of your joint inquisitiveness that has wrought such a stellar component.  Obviously, it like nothing I have ever heard before, just as you said it would.  The Spatial Triode Masters (which you encouraged me to buy nearly 6 years ago before you yourself had your own pair which was a stellar recommendation as all owners of them know) sound amazing with your amp and my soon-to-be-delivered Cube Audio Jazzon speakers clearly will love to be driven by your monos so expect a report back on that soon.  

Finally, as others have said, this has been among the most informative and civil threads I have ever participated in on the forum and I am among many who are excited to hear your room in Seattle next month.  

To Lynn's comments about the need for big power for your speakers, that Class D amps get the job done, I would humbly add that an excellent tube preamp such as Don makes in the path adds a measure of bloom and euphonic sound that so many of us desire.  I prefer to own speakers that mate well with tube amplification, but that is just me.  

Great response, Ralph, answering questions I have long wondered about.  My Sachs monos put out a fair amount of heat so I mounted a couple of noiseless computer fans at the back of my rack to dissipate the heat to a degree.  

Since rolling out of bed in the morning, your amps have been filling my room with amazing sounds, and I appreciate greatly the design thought that went into them, the technical derivations of which is way over my head.

The amps, now with the excellent new Linlai WE300b tubes also run in, create a sheer wall of sound, effortless in its presentation, heft in the LF, delicate highs, and a mid-range to that sounds exactly right.   Even compared to Don's excellent Kootenai KT88, these monos are in a whole different realm.  The sound with my Spatial Audio speakers just hangs effortlessly the room.  

This thread, with both the participation both you and Don, has been most informative, and I am an early beneficiary of your design which as been to elevate my listening enjoyment to degree to a level that I never anticipated possible.  With your monos, there is no amp at all... just joyous music, heard in a way I never thought possible with no sonic signature at all... just pure clean vivid sounds.  Perhaps that ought be the design goal for all... create front end gear that sounds like nothing at all...  You gents have succeeded in that respect. 

@jeff_ss

Being an owner of Don's Vahalla tube integrated, might your "handle" more appropriately be "@jeff_tubes"?   ;-)  

 I have the Triode Masters and heard the Sapphires and was not compelled to upgrade.  However, the X-series is a different kettle of fish so I am enthused to hear them with Don and Lynn's newest electronics, presented in their best possible light.  Oh, and the excellent Lampizator DAC which will clearly complement the rest of the gear.  

I reiterate and amplify my love for these new mono's, which sounds cliche, but they sound like no amps at all, just masterful reproduction of the music in such an effortless and ethereal way... the sound is suspended in the air in the room with a completely realistic manner.  The amps just completely get out of the way with a sonic signature that I would not describe with adjectives like "warm" or "cool", just completely realistic to the source of the music.  This uncanny sound reproduction you will hear when you visit the room, of that I am confident.   I hope I run into you and others on this thread in the room to get acquainted and share our impressions of what we hear.

I wish Charles would be there so I could meet him and applaud him on his excellent contributions on this forum, a paragon of audio knowledge and the utmost of civility.  He clearly knows the sonic splendor of 300b gear.  For me, hearing these mono's, it is a bell that can not be unrung.  I think other attendees to the room might come to the same conclusion.  

I rather think that there is inherent magic in the employment of 300b tubes, which I discovered with my Willsenton 300b amp with all of 8 wpc.  It drove my Spatial just fine... until it didn't.  With these monos, there is no such limitation on db levels vs distortion which stands to reason.  Easily end-game amplification which will be added to with Don's new preamp, designed from the get-go to pair optimally with the monos via XLR connections. 

You have great 300b amps, and you like Barney Kessel (I am almost solely a jazz listener for 50 years) so you and I are on the same sheet of music.  Your posts are always informative and upbeat, which I value.   

Gents,

I have had several Class D amps in my system in the past 10 years, and the earlier versions of them were dry and lifeless after extended listening sessions.  In the last couple of years, I had the VTV Audio EVO 1200 Class D amp with the Purifi module, with the aftermarket ministrations of Ric Schultz, and while the sound was as Ralph describes it, there was something missing in the sound after extended listening sessions.  It may clearly be due for my inherent biases, I will readily admit that.  After listening to the VTV amp for few months, I swapped back into the rack my McCormick DNA .05 which had their Platinum upgrades and after a few minutes of listening to it, I said to myself... "Ah, what was missing with the VTV amp has all been restored."  That is what I experienced, plain as day. I later got the stellar Wells Audio Innamorata SS amp, lovely both in its looks and more importantly in its sonic excellence -- easily the best SS amp I have ever had in my system.  After a few months of enjoying the Wells amp, I swapped Don's KT88 tube amp back in the rack and it was easy to hear the difference in SQ... back was the liquid sound of tubes with amazing extension on both ends and a soundstage that mesmerized my ears.  None of the sluggishness in sound of my old CJ gear, which was appealing to my ears, but far from an accurate sound reproduction, so Don's KT88 amp had all the advantages of a SS amp but had the warmth, richness and liquid sound that I desire which serves to envelope me in the listening experience (which I agree my VTV amp did to a degree initially) but here is the difference:  after hours and hours of listening, I loved even more the sound for the KT88 amp, whereas in extended listening sessions, there was a lacuna in the sound with the VTV amp that I clearly sensed and missed.  

That said, my new 300b monos are a quantum leap forward in SQ even compared to Don's KT88 amp in all respects and most noticeably this:  it sounds as if there is no amp at all... just glorious music enveloping the room, with pure tonal and timbre correctness that astonishes me... and absolutely dead quiet.  As good as the Kootenai is, and it is a stunning and powerful 65wpc tube amp, the 300b monos are in a whole different realm. 

I have not heard the fairly-price AtmaSphere Class D mono's at any audio show, but as Ralph has come from a tube-centric point of view, I must acknowledge that he might have be on to something with his design, surely he is. There are lots of advantages to using a Class D amp and God bless those that love them.  

This erudite conversion with Lynn, Don and others has been a deep dive into tube design philosophy and I personally am hearing the splendor of their creation moment by moment, lucky me, for darn sure.  Again, and not to be disputatious on this wonderful thread, for the liquid euphonic and most natural presentation musical reproduction with my new 300b monos, I am still firmly in the tube amplification realm as it recreates music in such a realistic way, so pleasing to my ears.  The hell with the heat the 300b monos throw off!

Now, with another 100 hours on the amps, I will amplify the comments I made in my OP--- these amps are the most stunning addition to my 50 year quest for more accurate and pleasant sound in my system.

I am driving my 86db efficient CSS Audio Criton 1TD-X speakers with the 300b amps at the moment and I can play music as loud as I can possibly tolerate it with no sense of distortion or clipping.  I have a 8 wpc Willsenton 300b integrated amp which I drove the same speakers with and it got pretty distorted as I rotated the volume knob to the right.  I recall that Don said that his mono's sounds "like a 100 wpc amplifier" and he is exactly right.

Boys, you are going to have to pay to play with Don/Lynn's new monos, but it is clear to my ears that if you are looking for an end game in amplification... and have the appropriate synergy with your speakers, then I hope you get a chance to hear them, which I will in the Spatial Audio room at the Pacific Audio Fest this month in Seattle, along with Don's new companion tube preamp.  

I have a pair of Cube Audio Jazzon single-driver speakers arriving on Monday which I think will be a stellar match for the 300b monos, but still the the mono's have made my Spatial Audio Triode Masters sound the best they have ever sounded, by far.  To be candid, if I had had the new 300b monos, driving my Triode Masters, before I ordered the Cube Audio speakers, I don't think I would have ordered them so as the Triode Masters sound so fantastic.  Don Sachs encouraged me to buy them ~6 years ago and now he has as his reference speakers the Spatial X- speakers, clearly an upgrade from my Triode Masters.

I live in Sacramento and would be happy to invite music lovers to come and hear my Don Sachs gear and my Cube Audio speakers.  Send me a private message and let's hear them together.    Cheers!

Charles,

As a 300b amp owner yourself,  you know whereof I speak.  Expect a report back on this thread in due time when the Cube speakers are run in.  Some folks agree that Cube's driver technology is one of the biggest leaps forward in speaker design in a long time.  I heard them at Axpona and was compelled to have them in my system.  

Ricevs,

Pardon my incorrect reference to my amp:  it was the VTV AMPLIFIER Stereo Purifi Audio 1ET400A Amplifier.  The guy that bought it from me was over the moon happy with the sound of the amp. 

Ralph,

Your comments on this this thread, as on any thread, are extremely informative.   I have not had the pleasure of hearing your new affordably-priced Class D monos and maybe they will be playing at the Seattle show later this month so I could hear them then.  

You have had a career as a designer and builder of tube gear.  You now are selling a Class D amp with the new GaN technology.  Don and Lynn of course are solidly tube amplification adherents, make no mistake about that, but you seem to be straddling the line between an affinity for tube gear as well as Class D amplification. 

Are you at the point where you feel your Class D amps are equivalent to your best tube amps?  I have long anticipated that the day will come where the march of technology might render tube gear obsolete, but in the main at the moment, my experience with Class D amplification is somewhat akin to the unwarranted adoption in the 60s of lousy sounding solid state gear (everybody made a variant of it) over tube gear that took a very long time for the industry to recover from.  Tube gear, like vinyl sales, are better than they have been for a long time, but I remain dubious that Class D amps yield the same sonic goodness after extended listen sessions, than the better/best  tube amplifiers.  But then I have not heard your new Class D monos. Comments?

Lynn,

My local tube tech was good friends with Charlie who lived near Sacramento and he had immense respect for him.  He published a magazine which I am sure you aware of, 100% tube centric.  I never met him but he was a legend in this neck of the woods for his tube knowledge. 

Ralph, it seems curious to me that knowledgable audiophiles would rely on anything but sound to be the arbiter of their purchase decisions.  Tube gear is a hassle and costly, but to my ears, it is the price to pay for such magnificent sound. I think buyers buy tube gear because it sounds better, pure and simple.   

Lynn,

Oh yea of little faith...  Very few speakers play nearly as well as the Spatials in less-than-perfect rooms and your front end will be tremendous so great sound is a foregone conclusion.  Your room is gonna sound sensational and I am going to be there to hear it.  Lucky me.  

Don and Thom,

Gents, with all due respect, an 81-83 db SPL from my speakers conveys none of the emotional aspect of my music so I prefer it more around 88-90 db, thereabouts.  I want a visceral impact to the sound of my system and 83 db does not provide that.   By this, I mean when I am I doing critical listening.  

I participated in a San Francisco Audio Society listening comparison of the totl Coincidence speakers to Andrew Jones' $200  speakers, maybe Panasonic, I forget now.  We initially did an A/B session between the two pairs of speakers at a modest listening level, maybe 75-80 db, and the gathered listeners were totally flummoxed as to which two pairs of speakers were playing.  I personally could not figure out which pair was playing, try as I might.  Well, as you can anticipate, once the volume was turned up, it was 100% clear which pair was which, plain as day.

My best wishes for those that feel they are getting the full measure of their sound of their speakers at 81-83 db, but in my mind, that volume level in no possible way can portray the palpable sense of music reproduction on either my Spatial Audio speakers or my new Cube Audio Jazzon speakers.  Long term listening at 90db is an issue and am aware of that, and I don't listen to music continuously at 90 db, but I do fairly often for short periods of time, and it energizes me. 

If I were to be satisfied listing to music at 81-83 db, there are lots of inexpensive speakers available that sound just fine.  But with more volume, the better speakers begin to shine, which is why we pay the large sums of money for them.  

Understood.  The Kootenai is a fantastic amp, as I know having one.  Let your pocketbook be your guide, but to be honest, Don and Lynn's 300b monos are in a whole different realm of musical excellence.  Maybe you can come hear them at the Seattle Audio show?  

Wig,

Dandy system you have, for sure.  You have nominal 4 ohm speakers and if the Kootenai drives them to your satisfaction, then the 300b Statement monos will drive them as well, with an astonishing clarity that will be simply stunning.  Cheers.  

On Don Sachs' recommendation, I have been using them both his preamp and amps for quite a while.   Nothing but... dead.... silence. 

First things first.   I share Lynn's sorrow for Edisoncarter's perceptions of how he was treated in the room and honor his impressions, with the exception of this thread being a shrill for their gear.  But personally being camped out in the room on Saturday, there were waves of folks coming and going which always can be confusing.  Sorry for the bummer experience, Edisoncarter.

The sound in the room with the new Spatials and Don and Lynn's front end with the phenomenal Lampi DAC all combined for a stunning sound. (I don't recall that they had a TT in the room.)   Don played an unusual song with all bamboo instruments and the articulation of each note was brilliantly clear and suspended in air.  Then Don played "Kind of Blue", the finest jazz recording in history, and the music simply bloomed in front and behind the speakers, with amazing imagining.  I have had this recording for nearly 50 years and know it intimately.  It was easy to pick out where the players were located in the sound field with lofty air around them all.  

Clayton was there and I am very happy to see that he has regained his robust health, and his new X4 Ultras brought to life the excellence of the the front end electronics, pure and simple.  Don was not completely happy with the room dimensions, but I have always thought that Spatial speakers are the least room sensitive of any speakers I have owned.  And so my ears told me in my extended listening of music in the room.  Let me state the obvious:  Don has much better ears than I have and is a hyper-critical objective listener or how else could he tune his gear to nth degree trying various caps, etc?  

A word or two about Lynn Olson.  Very rarely have I met such an erudite person in the audio realm... he knows tube gear in a way that I suspect few people do.  I think he has to be one of the unheralded geniuses in the hifi world and can expound with  the same knowledge on economics, history, philosophy, religion, anthropology, climate change, psychology (his initial training), politics, and on and on.  He is a true polymath and is among the most gentle men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  I learned much of this at dinner after the show with him and Don, where I got an understanding of the full dimension of the collaborative effort that created these stellar electronics.  The two of them are cut from a different bolts of cloth, so to speak, but they put their fertile ideas together to create this gear.

Moving on, the Whammerdyne room with the Songer speakers was excellent as Lynn noted.  The Von Schwiekert room with a panoply of VAC tube amps was outstanding.   Jeff Wells' room with his electronics and the $13K TAD speakers was  exceptional.  The new Mofi 10's were a joy, kind of an old school sound, updated, and a real bargain.  The new iteration of the JBL L100's did not move me at all.  The Chapman speakers in the Kuzmo room sounded really fine.  

I got to visit with Gary Gill, a very affable guy, who put this show on as a region event, with no pretensions of it being an Axpona. The vibe was very relaxed, I sensed, with about 40 or so rooms that attendees didn't feel like they had to rush around to hear everything.  The after-show musical entertainment was way beyond anything I have heard at Axpona or RMAF... hats off to Gary for that, a real swell guy who I pleasantly visited with about analogue vs digital music and it was delightful to share different opinions in a very pleasant and humorous matter.  He is a great guy, very easy going.  

I had a wonderful time hearing Don and Lynn's new electronics and Clayton's new speakers and finally, after 15 years of having Don upgrade all my vintage Harmon Kardon gear and then getting his preamps and Kootenai amp... and now his 300b monos, to finally meet him in person was a purely joyous experience.  He is a bundle of focused energy and as affable as you can imagine.   Oh, I got to meet Miller Carbon, too, who was playing Tekton Moabs, probably 7' tall and they sounded quite good.  

It was a great show with many really fine exhibitors.  It was a great event, no question about it.   Cheers, Whitestix

Lynn makes note of hearing Purifi Class D amps at the show in a favorable way.   I did hear Atma-Sphere's new GaN mono amps driving the the Tekton Moabs and I thought they sounded excellent.  I could easily see a synergy between the Raven and Ralph's mono amps and I personally would require a tube preamp with any amp I might choose to use.  That Ralph has made such a move to Class D technology after decades of being a tube designer/manufacturer ought to make the audio community sit up and take notice.  What I heard of his $5500 amps was very impressive.  Of course, let your ears be the judge.

I am luxuriating with Don's DS2 preamp and his new 300b monos driving my now run-in Cube Audio Jazzon speakers.   I am enjoying the sound in my room to a degree that I have never experienced before.  From morning to night...   

Robert,

We are among the fortunate to have Don's gear and I certainly share your opinion of the the room.  We both got to meet Don in person for the first time and he is a great guy, for sure.  Same with Lynn Olson.  Now with a month of run in with the new 300b monos in my system with my Cube Audio Jazzon speakers, every day of listening brings new joys to my ears.  

Lynn, I hope you bounce back soon from Covid.  I got Covid in the remote state of South Dakota last year so go figure.  Your meds will  surely alleviate the symptoms.

Pindac, I heard the Jubilees in a local dealer's room and they are truly sublime, really stunning, fit for a way big room.  

I visited with the owner of Whammerdyne Audio who had his 2A3 SET amp driving the stellar Songer speakers.  As far as I can tell, the Whammerdyne designer has a different amp design philosophy than Don and Lynn, who favor a P-P design. Both Don and Lynn loved the sound of the Whammerdyne/Songer room at the Seattle show so that might say that there a lot of paths to get tube amps performing in an excellent fashion. I would have liked to hear those exemplary Songer speakers with Don and Lynn's 300b monos.  Yes I would and I bet Don and Lynn would too. 

I had a couple of flea watt tube amps including an excellent 8wpc Dennis Had amp that just ran out of gas even with my easy-to-drive Spatial Audio speakers.  Don and Lynn's 300b monos have ~27 wpc, which can drive a boatload of speakers.  Their mono's drive both my Spatials and Cube Audio speakers with alacrity, no question, no limitations.  And with dead silence between songs, more so than some of my excellent SS amps.  

Pindac,

Please define EE and VC for my edification.  I am slow. 

Lynn,

I appreciate your candid views about the efficacy of DACs at varying price points. I was in the Spatial room when you heaped praise on the Mola Mola dac in the Songer/Whammerdyne room, a far less expensive DAC than the Lampi DAC in your room.  I read an owner's report that a Topping DE90 SE DAC for $900 was, to his ears, pretty much the same as the sound of his DCS Bartok DAC that cost ~12X as much.  My audio pal with nice gear has been is a rabid needle-dropper and he bought this same $900 Topping DAC and now honestly admits that his fealty to only analogue music is over as what he hears with this modestly-price DAC is pretty much the same as he hearing with his $15K analogue rig.

DAC technology, top to bottom, is really fantastic these days.  One of the happiest days of my audio life was getting a SOTA Sapphire vacuum TT in the mid 80's and another very happy day was the day I sold the TT to a local guy a few years ago, no shipping required.  Once I got an Ayre QB-9 DAC in my system, it was game over for my TT rig.  

Once and alway, no participant on this forum has more erudite and encouraging responses to all things audio related than you.  Charles, thanks as always for your upbeat posts, alway a pleasure to read.  Mark

I am pretty much the last guy on the thread to answer your question as "DC heaters" is one of a million design criteria that Don, Lynn, and Ralph understand very well and I think one of them will deign to respond to your question.   I think the dead silence of Don/Lynn's amp is a function of a variety of factors... best I can put it.  

Well, Hawkrising, your last sentence might be correct but I studied Economics, not electronics, so I rely on excellent designers and fabricators like Don and Lynn for my front end gear and, in exchange, I compensate them for their efforts.  

Aspirationally, the ultimate audiophile could take a stab at recreating the something akin the stellar Lampizator DAC's, like the $20K Lampi DAC in the Spatial room in Seattle which was the source for the music they presented.  Totally stunning sound, but likely far beyond the skills of most audiophiles.  I am not sure even Don or Lynn want to tackle building a DAC.  

Don/Lynn vs. Ralph seem to have somewhat different notions of how these tube amps might be best designed and fabricated, which reflects different design criteria.  That's cool.  Lots of designers have different design philosophies... probably all of them.  I haven't heard Ralph's 300b amps which might at some point be an interesting comparison to my 300b amps.  ;-)

Don sent me his pre-pro 300b amps a few months ago which I have been using to power my very efficient Cube Audio Jazzon speakers and the sound is simply ethereal, like nothing I have every heard in my 50 years of audiophilia... a remarkable improvement even in comparison to  Don's  KT88 amp, which is outstanding, a legacy amp for sure, and the 300b mono's are better in every way.  The musical notes simply hang in the air, suspended in the room in front on my listening seat.  Matching of speakers is required for the 300b monos, but I drove some 86 db efficient standmount speakers with alacrity... my ears gave out long before the 300b amps did, with not a hint of distortion so as Don says, the 27 wpc amps rather sound like a 100 wpc SS amp.  That is what my ears tell me so the amps will drive a wide variety of speakers that many other 300b amps simply will not.  

If you have followed this thread, Don and Lynn have made significant enhancements to the performance of the pre-pro mono's I have, yet I just can't imagine how much better the SQ will be after Don gets them back and updates them to the final production version.  However, I have no doubt that I will have one of the finest 300b amps possible at any price so always with Don, it is "promises made and promises honored."   

The final point I'd like to make is that Lynn envisioned this employment of 300b tubes in an earlier iteration of it and he and Don put their collective wisdom together to update the design with these new mono's.  Just as with fleawatt 2A3 power tubes, the 300b power tubes have a sonic signature, to my way of thinking and to my aging ears, are unlike any other tubes in power amps and I have had many of them over the years.  Once you have heard them, you can't unhear them... so long as they are matched properly with compatible speakers which in fact will include a lot of speakers that many other 300b amps will not drive properly .  Cheers.  

This thread, with over 500 posts I think, has allowed interested people to understand the evolution of their 300b amps design compared to other designs.  A rare insight into the machinations of amplifier design, which to be honest Roger Modjeski from RAM was stellar at doing as well.   Lynn astounded me with an earlier post that some designers, maybe it was with speakers, design to specs and that's it.  What Don and Lynn have done is an endless process of swapping not only components, but topologies, a very interactive process, subject to both measurements and equally or more important, endless comparative listening observations.  This to me is the optimum process to design gear and the process has to be exhaustive, but both Don and Lynn have done  this for decades... this iterative process.   And, to wit, they have shared their excursion on this thread in masterful detail to inform all of us.   

My pre-pro 300b amps are a glimpse of heaven with my Cube Audio speakers and it is hard to imagine how much better they will sound when Don updates them to the final version, but  I am certain his promises will be fulfilled.  

I certainly confirmed that the 300b monos will drive the Dyn's to the full measure of their sound in my 13'X26'X9' room.  Lynn points out the need for speakers of a certain design, as he listed examples off, to have lots of power (current) to those speakers with amps which have a high damping factor.   My main speakers are Cube Audio Jazzon single driver speakers which by design, require an amp with a very low damping factor, such as most tube amps I can imagine and ss amps like the Enleum 23R and most of the Pass Labs First Watt amps.  

I am very happy that these 300b monos drive both my Cube speakers as well as the Dynaudio C-1's so I conclude that these monos are much more compatible with a larger variety than probably typical ~8wpc 300b amps would drive. 

I started this thread with reference to my Willsenton r300 300b tube amp with 8 wpc.  I swapped that into the rack to try to drive the Dyn's and it ran out of clean power pretty darn quickly, while the 300b monos cruised along easily and cleanly at very high SPLs.   It is a very unfair comparison, but here it is... a 300b tube amp that will drive a lot of speakers that many others likely would not.  This fact dramatically broadens the selection of speakers one could pair with these fantastic amps because having a tube amp that only pairs with high efficiency speakers is awfully limiting as one's choice of speakers today might not be the same speakers you have down the road.  

Amazing to watch the arc of the development and completion of these stellar monobock amps.  Just wonderful.  

Very interesting discussion about gear sold on one side of the Atlantic and that sold on the other side.  Reading the British hifi magazines, I have always been curious why they and the Europeans fancy such different gear than we do in the US.  Naim and Hegel are two EU brands that have deeply penetrated the US audio market, as well as the venerable Linn TT's.  With Lynn's erudition, I now understand why that is the case. 

As I am sure Don can attest after his renovation of lots of vintage HK and Marantz gear, a boatload, literally, of these vintage tube amps made their way to Japanese audiophiles for decades.  Don't flame me for saying this, but the Japanese have a purist view of a lot of things, including architecture, gardening, city planning, vital mass transit, delicate and inventive cuisine, etc etc.  It comes as no surprise to me that the Japanese clamor for the best audio gear on this side of the pond.  Kondo Audio Note is a prime example of their aesthetic.  We all learn from one another.  

Once and always, Charles sets the bar for thoughtful and positive responses to topics on this forum, which in 10 months regarding this thread, have always been very upbeat and positive.  When we are treated to a master class in tube design philosophy, freely given, participants clearly appreciate the generous sharing of information by the masters: Don, Lynn and Ralph.  It has been a real education for me.