Don Sach's pre amp

Has anyone tried Grant Fidelity's Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE?

If anyone is still around...

Giving a lot of thought to Don’s preamp. But do have some questions before I call him:

- Tonally: "neutral" or some degree of warmth (short of classical tube sound)? I don’t like what most people call neutral, which I find cool and uninvolving once the marvel at PRAT passes.

- I have a Lampi Atlantic TRP dac, which with some tube rolling I find much better than the very good DirectStream -- except that I have active ATC speakers that are balanced (10K impedance) and one set of my Lampi’s outputs are faux-XLR, i.e., unbalanced. I’ve had some mismatch problem running from those directly to the ATC’s in terms of hum/buzz. We’re working on that now. But if I add the Sachs preamp in between with its unbalanced outputs, should I expect to face the same problem?

- Is a remote standard?

- What does the preamp weigh? How tall is it with tubes?

thanks,

Thanks, cal. Lots of variables. You’ve obviously put in a lot of work and money to find what works for you. I’ve been sticking to the easy changes, such as rolling tubes in the Lampi. I had a bad experience with the sale of my DSD, so I’ve got it back and am listening now with a PrimaLuna Dialogue preamp that came with old Mullards, while I await the return of my Lampi and think about whether or not to ditch the PL for something better. People -- developers and users -- were correct that although counterintuitive, sticking a good preamp between dac and active speakers, i.e., amp, improves the sound. Finding the right preamp for one’s tastes and budget is the trick.