Let’s see, I have had a Threshold Stasis S2 for probably less than 20 years, a PS Audio 200C for longer, an Audio Research LS15 for a decade or so, a Coda 05R about the same. Various Sony ES CD players and DVD players. All of it has been highly modified. The end of last year however I got a Schitt Audio Yggdrasil DAC, and that changed everything. Now I have a DS2 preamp, and an amp very similar to, but not as good as Don Sachs’ amp. His electronics just embarrass most of the rest of my gear. I really can’t imagine replacing anything in my system currently. If you had 20K for an amp and preamp you MIGHT be able to better Don’s, but you would have to see search high and low to do so, and the Yggdrasil might also be slightly bettered, but I think that I’ll stand pat, for the first time ever, I don’t suffer from listening fatigue. A lot of that was due to speakers honestly, but as good as my SS gear sounds, it sounds good compared to other SS gear, and lessor quality tube gear. Don Sachs has been working on tube gear his whole life and has found some amazingly good components that are simply neutral. He has found components that I had never heard of, and he has allowed other components that I had tried and pulled, to fully burn in. I thought that they sounded so bad that they could never sound good, but he had the patience to allow them to fully burn in, and it turned out that they were truly good sounding after a proper burn in. I cannot recommend him highly enough! BTW, if you do buy from him, he'll make you some very inexpensive interconnects that will better anything I have heard, but only if you are buying an amp or preamp from him.
don@dsachsconsulting.com