Don Sach's pre amp

Those tubes will sound good after 50 hours but will need 200+ hours to fully burn-in. Looking forward on receiving my D2 and Kootenay 120 KT 88 Amp.

Wig

I ordered a pair of the Shuguang Black Treasure CV181z tubes to try out with the DS-2. The DS-2 needs over 100 hours of burn-in time for the capacitors chosen for the build anyway....so I will use them for the burn-in and see how they sound compared to my current 6SN7 favorite, the Raytheon VT-231 with 8 copper rods and flat black plates.

@porscheracer, , I just purchased a new PS audio Directstream DAC I do own a Schiit Gungnir ( which I use with my LCD-X and Audeze Deckard Amplifier, But PS Audio Directstream just blew  me away with the DS-2 , when I purchased it  I thought i'd use for 30 days and send it back  than may be try to get a Lampizator DAC, but the sound quality to my ears is so pleasing with this DAC that I changed my mind and decided to keep it . the DAC also can be used as pre-amp directly into the power power amp. The sound quality is pretty close, with DS stream having slightly bigger soundstage 

I'm considering the Sach's Custom preamp. I love the use of 6SN7's in the gain stage. The one thing I'm wondering is the use of a cathode-follower is like a double-edged sword; low noise and distortion, but this design usually has a modern tube sound; extended highs and a lack of warmth.
I like transparency and open sonics, but I've owned preamps that sounded similar to solid state. I don't like the dark "syrup" tube sound, but want a preamp that presents tube bloom.

Any comments on this by Sachs owners? I'm using an EL34 push-pull amp.

Don Sachs has relentlessly fashioned tweaks to his preamp since its creation, two of which I have had including an upgrade from Mundorf Silver Oil caps to Jupiter caps in the past which was marvelous.  I sent the preamp back a couple of weeks ago for three new upgrades:  one allows a more potent rectifier; another involved all internal Dueland wiring; and finally and most importantly, the substitution of sonically  equivalent caps to the extremely pricey but excellent Dueland output caps.  

I got the upgraded preamp back a few days ago and the upgrades are just astonishing and are likely not fully run in yet.  There is more pinpoint accuracy to the instruments in a wider soundstage and bit more hefty and control in the LF response.  Tons of air around the instruments, even more holographic than before.  Easily a 15% improvement overall, if I had put a number on it.  The cost of the upgrades was very reasonable, indeed, in comparison to the sonic improvement I am hearing. 

For around $2700, this is simply the finest preamp -- tube or solid state, that I have ever had in my system and I have had lots of them before I got this preamp 4 years ago, several significantly more costly.  If you are an owner of an earlier version of that which he currently sells, the upgrade to the new caps and the wiring modification in order to use the more robust 6BY5 rectifier is a very efficacious investment.  

In a weeks' time, I will receive his bespoke KT88-based amplifier to complete the front end of my system.   I heard the amp in my system recently and it was sonically far more three-dimensional than my wonderful Platinum-upgraded McCormack DNA .05 solid state amp.  Don's amp has all the control in the LF range and simply throws an expansive 3-D soundstage which is incomparable to the McCormack.  Tonally, they are quite similar, but the soundstage with Don's amp is vastly more realistic... the music just seems to float in the air.