Bit the Bullet ... Don Sachs Model 2 Preamp

Yikes Don,
That’s a really great evolution of your preamp! Almost wish I had waited. Also looks like you could mod existing preamps fairly easily to the new face. I really like the input relay addition.

Hi rlb61

Congrats on ordering the Don Sach pre, the consensus is that, for the money it's one of the best ones out there. His website on the other hand not so much. Do you know what the output impedance is? That is the only thing that may be of concern. I looked at his website but couldn't find specs anywhere. 

I have also been doing a lot of research in the last few months as I to am looking at upgrading my preamp. When it comes to affordable tube preamps between 2-4K that are supposed to sound great and after reading the blogs, forums and reviews, the same few names keep coming up. They are Supratek, Don Sachs, Aric, Dehavilland and Linear Tube Audio.

I agree, nothing is more important than a home audition and a good return policy. Let us know what you think after you've had it for a few months. I hope it's everything you hoped for.

Scot

@scothurwitz ... I returned the DS preamp because it had suffered damage in transit and the wait in the queue was too long. Nice sounding preamp, but there wasn't a night and day difference between the DS and my BAT tube preamp. So, I kept the BAT preamp, bought a BAT power amp, and have gone fully balanced. Very happy with the sound.

The preamps with the big oil caps take a good 50-100 hours to run in.  So if you don't have 100 hours on it, you really don't know what it will finally sound like.   

cheers,
Don

Also, the output impedance is about 410 ohms.  That number is irrelevant.  The only thing that matters is the size of the output capacitor in relation to the input impedance of the following amplifier.  .47 uF will drive about 80K or higher and be flat to 20 Hz.  For 47K amps you need 1 uF output caps and for 30K amps you need 1.5 uF.  Base prices of my preamps include a wonderful Polish oil cap in .47 uF.  Going to 1 uF costs $80 and 1.5 uF costs $120.   Anything larger than 1.5 uF requires that I use a Mundorf silver oil cap because the Polish caps are the same size as Duelunds, and 1.5 uF is the largest value that will fit in the case.