Don Sachs DS2 vs Wells Audio Commander

i love the ds pre as well, but agree that there is a little tube noise, the unit is sensitive to that... need to work at the tube selection to get very quiet tubes... but worth the trouble i think the unit sounds exceptionally good

It misses some the tube magic – for sure – but it is slightly more articulate without being fatiguing. And since it's solid state, I can leave it on during the day without concern of burning out tubes.

Yeah, therein lies the rub, eh?  Probably why running a tube pre with SS amp is so popular.  If possible you might want to look at a Class-A amp that IME does about the best job of blurring the lines between tubes and SS.  Something like the Clayton Audio S100 is really nice because it does that but has a high/low bias switch so if you want to leave it on 24/7 the electric bill doesn’t take such a large hit.  FWIW...

@jjss49 - What tubes did you settle on?

What tubes are you running? I have the Don Sachs Model 1 (with his 6BY5 tube rectifier mod) and I only hear tube noise when I first turn it on?

I’m feeding a pair of Soundcraftsmen PM-860 monoblocks.

i put shuguang we6sn7’s in the 2 primary signal (left) positions - at don’s recommendation ... and old stock rca red base 5692 in the minor driver positions

https://www.china-hifi-audio.com/en/shuguang-electronic-tube-valve-c-49/shuguang-we6sn7-electron-tub...

i have a gaggle of 6sn7-equivalent old stock tubes from my days with vac and cary amps, chose the quietest ones i had

i did go through 3 pair of those lovely big bottle chinese tubes to find a very quiet set