Don Sachs Owners Thread

I may have some set screws if he's on vacation, but finding them may take a miracle. My work area is a disaster area.

"I just out in some 'treasures' tubes and they are nice versus the Shunguang I had in there." It depends upon which Shunguan tubes. They apparently no longer make the tubes Don was shipping with his preamps, but they smoked everything Chinese or NOS that I had heard until the E-6SN7s. 

 

Don has a rectifier upgrade, and if you have an older version, a coupling cap modification which together, IMO, amount to a 20% increase in sound quality if you are using the E-6SN7 tubes.

@aldnorab

Yes, if you have 2 outputs, you should probably put .5uf on one output for the 47K amp, and 1.33uf for the 130K amp, and mark them. You may wantto check with Don, but I believe that those values will give you better impedance matching, and minimize frequency roll off.

 

BTW, the old tubes you were using are okay for an older Freya preamp, due to its issues that need compensation. The tubes on the right are buffers and are less critical, the ones on the left should ideally be E-6SN7s and second to them, in current production tubes would, would be one of the various Treasure tubes. The E-6SN7s are going to just barely fit. The latest preamp addresses that.

 

Best Regards,

 

Lou

@aldnorab I really have forgotten my formulas, but no, Don installed .47uf caps for a 50ohm load, and 1uf for a 100k ohm input amp. Then there's this;

 

 

The chart they show shows increased impedance with increased capacitance. 

Don told me that the buffers were not critical. If you have plenty of money, use whatever, but if not you may want to use a less expensive tube as a buffer.

You should ask Don if your preamp has ODAM capacitors. If not you haven't heard anything yet.

That's interesting, has it been broken in? Since you recently re-tubed your DAC, it may be its tubes improving. The DS2 shouldn't be shifting sound in my experience unless something has been changed.

You'll be amazed if you're DS2 doesn't have the ODAM caps already. That's where I am now. It's so good that improvements surprise me, it escapes reason because it sounds so close to live as it is! Don is using Spatial Audio now, so I suppose that I could find an improvement there, but that's more than I am willing to pay, and they don't appear to be making them, or anything as Clayton is apparently in the hospital. The tubes I told you about will give fuller sound without sacrificing detail. It's as if the tubes you have run out of steam before the instruments should, but until you hear them, you won't believe it because the Chinese tubes are very good. If I had not heard the other tubed I would have been quite content with them.

I hope that you are able to get it working. One other thing to try would be contact cleaner. 

I shouldn't have left it there. Roy designed Don's preamp, but he was content with it. He's a genius to be sure, and certainly quite knowledgeable. Don is as well, but his genius is perfecting things, and you have to be unbelievable knowledgeable to do so. They are similar, yet different.

Now that I think about it, I haven't contacted Roy in years, his outlook may have changed. I may be talking about a Roy from a different era.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, unless we’re talking Nelson Pass, most circuits are based upon other designs. Cascade amplification, according to Stan Warren, was designed by Nelson who never patented it, and the vast majority of solid state amplifiers reportedly use it. In tubes, I believe that most refer to an old RCA publication as a start. So sure, Roy may have used an existing design to start with, most do, but he blew it up into a fantastic design, Don made further refinements and turned into a state of the art preamp. Bless them all, IMO.

The only true upgrade, other than a modification allowing the use of a 6BY5 would be the Bendex 6X5 compatible rectifier. I believe that they run about 100 or 200 dollars.

 

Lou

Tubes go bad, Brent Jesse does through testing, as do Kevin Deals' people. I haven't heard of a DS2 going up in flames, but anyone who deals with tubes should tell you in no uncertain terms that they can, and not to leave them on and unattended. That said, there is little dboutvof 2 things. 1. Highly reputable dealers tubes are rigorously tester. 2. That will cost you more money as they have to purchase more tubes, and sell less than they buy as a result. Even if you were to buy a top of the line tube tester, you likely won't know how to dial it in to get them best results.

invalid and @jackd, IME your system is no stronger than the weakest link. OTOH, music is very personal, so weakest link is subjective. So, reviews of tubes are going to vary based upon the neutrality of the system, and the predilections of the user. I tend to error on the side of neutrality, or what I perceive as neutrality. I judge neutrality based upon music without electrical power as once you introduce electricity there is no way to actually know how an electric guitar or synthesizer is supposed to sound. OTOH, with a neutral system you, if you know cymbals for instance, you can determine the manufacturer. I don't know cymbals, but those who do can differentiate on neutral systems I'm told. Anyway, old tubes, 6SN7, or 7N7s historically have been disappointing in my system. The E-6SN7s by Linlai sound pretty good. 1964 and older 6H8C Soviet tubes sound the best. The DS2 has various output capacitors. Mine had V-Caps, ODAMs, bypassed with CuFT's, which are very transparent, aka accurate. All of this will impact the sound of the tubes. Ultimately what I like may not be worth anything to someone looking for different attributes and neither of us is wrong because music is personal. I know nothing about newer versions of Vandersteen speakers, but older ones buried details, IME, but while I hate that about them, others love it, neither is right or wrong, we are just listening in ways that appeal to us. The end result is pretty hedonistic IMO, so what another wants is subjective and is therefore only right or wrong in the ears of the particular listener matters. That said, the 1964 and prior 6H8C tubes with the square getter, IME are awesome. I haven't revisited my NOS tubes since several critical upgrades have been made to my system, but I am not expecting any surprises. This opinion was worth every cent you paid for it.

Hi rbautista,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I need to revisit the Ken Rads to be sure. They were necessary in the first version of the Schiit Freya in order to have a sound stage, and the oldest Raytheons were needed for tonality issues, but when I first got the DS2 they were not so great. I did 6BY5 rectifier conversion, and went to the ODAM and CuFT cap conversion as well as swappinge some Duelund wire for VH Audio hook-up wire, so I should check them out again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rbautista, I believe that those are 1965 or newer, I have some but haven't listened to them. I believe that all of the ones I bought came from Europe, mostly from the Ukraine. I bought a lot of them in December I believe that they all arrived safely, at most there could be one shipment out there, but the late date was February, so I haven't bothered to check yet. They have the square/rectangular plate at the bottom. The ones with the disk at the bottom are newer. 1964 or before seems to be the division. With the square getter being the proof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Shuguang tubes Don was using prior to the Linlai tubes are pretty good, IME. I just did a better/worse between the Linlai and Soviet tubes and the Soviet tubes were fuller where the Linlai tubes tapered off sooner. The Soviet tubes just sound a little more life-like. That said, until I heard the Soviet tubes I was smitten with the Linlais.

Hi Andy, left right. Disagreements on tubes are to be expected. Two Ken Rads, Raytheons, etc. from the same batch may sound different as most were largely man made. Worse, Mr. X has amp A, while Mr. Z has amp B. Hot tubes offset crap coupling caps in amp X, but sound horrid in a system with a neutral amp. Same for speakers, sources, etc. Then there are hearing issues. An acquaintance of mine has very damaged high frequency hearing. He loves a Japanese girl band that would send most people running with their shrill music, he loves them. There are too many variables to know that if you buy musical heaven shall be reached. If you have a Schitt Yggdrasil, a very decent midfi DAC, some, a very few, songs may make your ears bleed if the rest of the system is neutral. Some might blame a certain tube in that system because the prior tube had slightly muted highs, and certainly it isn't the Yggdrasil, though it actually is.... People love 2CE Vandersteens, they sound like my speakers with a several layer blanket over them. To them my speakers are hot, and they don't really do much above 15KHz, virtually nothing goes that high unless you do electronic music, yet a Yggdrasil playing Kokomo can drive you nuts with them, or the Thiel CS7's, or B&W 801Ms that preceeded them. So, look for general information and don't necessarily expect even that to apply in your system. The 1964 and before Soviet tubes, by far, sound better in my system, but I have a highly modified Lampizator, a Levinson 27.5, and no crossover to dumb down the music. Oh, my DS2 has the VHAudio caps Don uses bypassed by Chris' best Teflon V-Caps in addition to the great V-Caps Don uses for more accurate highs. The coupling caps in the Lampizator are also double bypassed with CuFT's and the ODAM V-Caps. I love Chris' wire as well as his caps. Anyway, my system is as neutral as I could get it. Still, if you had my system, you may still prefer different tubes than I prefer. Personal biases, like taste in music, is going to vary.

There have been different configurations, but I believe that the buffers are on the right.

There have been different configurations, but I believe that the buffers are on the right.