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.
@lynn_olson - that’s a cool idea Lynn. There are certainly plenty of audiophiles out there with KT88 amps that are running them in triode mode that could benefit from these, not to mention folks with KT88 amps that don’t currently have a way to run triode connected. i don’t currently have a KT88 amp, but would probably build one if such a tube were available. |
People have gotten the weird idea that somehow the filament of the 45, the 2A3, the 300B, and the 845 are responsible for the ultra-low distortion, and the super-vivid tone color, of the DHT family. Wrong. It isn’t. It’s the grid. DHT’s have a physically large grid, well spaced away from the whirling cloud of electrons called a "space charge". Surprisingly, electrons are not directly emitted, pass through the grid, then strike the plate. Instead, they whirl around in the space charge, find a passage through the venetian-bland repelling field of the grid, and are accelerated to the plate. It’s the grid geometry that sets not only the DC characteristics of the tube, but also its linearity (especially high-order terms). This is the most critical part of the entire circuit. If you need pentode or beam tetrode characteristics, fine, you’ll have very low Miller capacitance, very high output impedance, and easy drive characteristics. This makes an excellent RF modulator, where distortion doesn’t matter. But if low distortion comes first, and you’re not asking for 20 to 50 dB of feedback to linearize the whole amplifier, a true purpose-made triode should have the lowest distortion. Since there are already lots of octal sockets in PP power amps, why not make a special triode tube just for them? There is some design work to optimize the grid structure so DC biasing is the same as a triode-connected pentode, but the absence of all those other grid wires should help. If the design is good enough, it could rival the 300B without the hassle of direct heating and the complex filament circuit. |
@lynn_olson : that's such a good idea! I'd buy a set for my pair of Dynaco Mk3's! An octal-base power triode would sell well! |
nice wish list.... unfortunately, the power race is on to build even more powerful KT88 to get KT120 and now KT150. They generate more watts if the amp can be biased to run them, but they don't sound as good as a good KT88. I think it is the watts race that is driving development though. What Lynn suggests would be really interesting and I would certainly try working with such a tube. |
The sonics would be interesting. The target device would of course be the 300B, but with an octal socket with a 6.3V indirect heater, and KT88 biasing. The 300B is more physically fragile than a KT88 because of filament sag, which can happen if the amp is tipped on its side while the filament is hot. If it sags enough, the filament will touch the grid, and ZAP! the tube turns into a full-power diode, which destroys it and the cathode circuit. Indirect heated tubes have the heater coiled up inside the cathode box, or cylinder, so it won't go anywhere if the amplifier is tipped on its side. This is why guitar amps are so rugged ... it takes enormous abuse to damage a KT88. The customer base for a TR88 would be much larger than a 300B. If the sonics and harmonic structure were like a DHT (not a KT88), a lot of people would be interested, assuming the price would be in the KT88 range. If it had a 300B price, that would greatly diminish the market, since it would be far outside the KT88 class. |
