Don Sachs Owners Thread
A place to discuss amps, preamps, and phono stages from Don Sachs.
I just purchased a like new D2 linestage. It has 2 gain controls, 64 step volume control, and digital volume readout. It is set up for the new rectifier. This is my first 6sn7 based linestage. It came with Ken-Rad Vt 231and gray RCA tubes. There are 3 rectifier tubes. A huge Philco 6BY5G, a Tung-Sol 6BY5G, and a Bendix 5852. There is also an Ice Age Audio power cord. With 2 different sounding outputs there are a lot of options. I need to find out what value the output caps are. I have the D2 connected at the moment to a VTL ST150. Input impedance is 125K and 2v in for maximum gain.
I placed the RCA tubes in left front and rear and Ken-Rad in the right. Used Philco rectifier. Plugged VTL amp into output 1. The brightest sounding preamp I've ever heard. It was comical, bass drums sounded more like cymbals. Output 2 sounds like normal music. This surprises me. With 125K input, I thought there would be no problem getting bass response.
Some questions.
1. Are the 6Sn7's in the right locations? I guessed by looking at the sellers photograph.
2. Is the Ice Age Audio the AC cord the brand Don offers as an option?
3. I'll audition all 3 but which rectifier would be considered tops?
The linestage sounds amazing.
Thanks,
aldnorab
"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. |
@bugredmachine thanks for the capacitor and circuit board images. Amazed at how much smaller the new caps are. For this hobby, it is great to have soldering skills. @lous the previous owner sent the model 2 to Don for updates. It has the 6BY5 rectifier, not sure about the caps. I'll have to pop the bottom and take a look. Yesterday I removed the Pioneer M22 (30 watts x2 class A) and tried the similar speced Pass A3 volksamp. The Pass is MOSFET and the Pioneer is bipolar. There are differences, but both sound fine. I was worried about their lower 47K input impedance vs the VTL ST150's 130K. There was a little less bass but that could be transistors vs tubes and the VTL having twice the power in triode mode. Still fun to hear the D Sachs linestage with all these amps. Thanks, 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 |
@lous thanks. Wouldn't the cap values be reversed? Lower input impedance needs higher cap value? Thanks, aldnorab |
