300b lovers


I have been an owner of Don Sachs gear since he began, and he modified all my HK Citation gear before he came out with his own creations.  I bought a Willsenton 300b integrated amp and was smitten with the sound of it, inexpensive as it is.  Don told me that he was designing a 300b amp with the legendary Lynn Olson and lo and behold, I got one of his early pair of pre-production mono-blocks recently, driving Spatial Audio M5 Triode Masters.  

Now with a week on the amp, I am eager to say that these 300b amps are simply sensational, creating a sound that brings the musicians right into my listening room with a palpable presence.  They create the most open vidid presentation to the music -- they are neither warm nor cool, just uncannily true to the source of the music.  They replace his excellent Kootai KT88 which I was dubious about being bettered by anything, but these amps are just outstanding.  Don is nearing production of a successor to his highly regard DS2 preamp, which also will have a  unique circuitry to mate with his 300b monos via XLR connections.  Don explained the sonic benefits of this design and it went over my head, but clearly these designs are well though out.. my ears confirm it. 

I have been an audiophile for nearly 50 years having had a boatload of electronics during that time, but I personally have never heard such a realistic presentation to my music as I am hearing with these 300b monos in my system.  300b tubes lend themselves to realistic music reproduction as my Willsenton 300b integrated amps informed me, but Don's 300b amps are in a entirely different realm.  Of course, 300b amps favor efficient speakers so carefully component matching is paramount.

Don is working out a business arrangement to have his electronics built by an American audio firm so they will soon be more widely available to the public.  Don will be attending the Seattle Audio Show in June in the Spatial Audio room where the speakers will be driven by his 300b monos and his preamp, with digital conversion with the outstanding Lampizator Pacific tube DAC.  I will be there to hear what I expect to be an outstanding sonic presentation.  

To allay any questions about the cost of Don's 300b mono, I do not have an answer. 

 

 

whitestix

Yes, it was fun!  As Lynn said, there were 3 or 4 outstanding rooms and we had one of them.   It was a scramble taming the room and the internet connection on setup day, well into the late evening.  But we got it!   I would say the system was very much on song except for image height and width and that was totally limited by the small room.  But depth was very good and tonality was unaffected.   Hope a few more folks that stopped by will give others an unbiased opinion on this thread as they get home.

I stopped by, and it was the only room I was made to feel totally unwelcome. Someone on the way in basically told me to get out there's a reviewer. Inside there was one guy sitting down being lectured about how great blah blah blah. I was totally ignored. Asked if we could hear some music? Got a glare and a terse "in a minute" then back to being ignored. Another guy I trust managed somehow to hear it, said it was okay. Only room all weekend actually refused to play music and treat attendees rudely. 

You want my unbiased view on this thread? Never seen one so dedicated to shilling allowed to go on and on. Free advertising. Must be nice.

 

Wow... It's really unfortunate that you had that experience and was certainly not how I was treated and I'm just a nobody.  I stopped by 3 times across the day on Friday and while the room was quite full each time.  However, I did introduce myself to Don and had a quite nice conversation.  Shill, not really sure what that really means but I get the implication and at least for me incorrect. 

I’m truly sorry you had that experience. The staff in the (fairly small) room rotated between Don, myself, and the four younger people at Spatial. (Don and I were the obvious old farts.) The Spatial people were manning the room (with a nonstop 4-hour playlist+personal requests) and Don and I were there to explain the electronics, tell various origin stories, and provide comic relief.

Reviewers popped in and out, and the famous Amir from ASR even showed up for a minute or two. Crowds came in surges, particularly on Saturday, when it was jam-packed. I was not aware that anyone had emptied the room for a reviewer, that’s certainly not what I saw when I was there. They had to take their chances like anyone else. There might have been special cases after 6PM, with private showings arranged in advance, but after-6 was mostly Social Hour for the exhibitors ... for example, I dragged all of the Spatial staff and Don to hear the Songer/Whammerdyne room, just down the hall from us. I’ve been old friends with Matt Kamna, the designer of the Whammerdyne 2A3 amplifier, so that was my after-hours excuse to get them to open the door ... "hey, here’s all my friends, can we listen for a while?" ... kind of thing.

I don’t know who the Famous Name Reviewer was. I wasn’t aware of anyone dropping by, much less closing the room for them. Our plan is to build a customer base (that’s you, folks) before we let any product get formally reviewed by the magazine or YouTube reviewer. Speaking only for myself, we’d like the Big Guns to give us a little breathing room, while we get the production machine going.

Don and I already have market identities ... we’ve been doing our respective things for thirty-plus years, with our names attached to what we do. We don’t need to build something that’s already there. So I’m not in a hurry ... at all ... to get in a review queue. People have heard about the Karna since 2003, well, here it is, in a room that’s about half the size of my living room, so please make allowances.

 

There was a reviewer from Stereophile who came twice.  I let him play what he wanted, but I certainly did not chase anyone out of the room, so maybe that was someone else in the rear.  I assure you that Stereophile will not be getting the amps for review.  There is no free advertising as the product is not even in production yet.  Sorry you were not treated well, but it wasn't me....