Hi Lynn & Don... Will you be at Capital Audio Fest with the Blackbirds?
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.
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@tinear123 No. Production starts in late November when I go to Salt Lake and teach the guys at Spatial the builds. I would expect a review by late spring and perhaps an audio show in the west somewhere next summer. That is kind of going to be the schedule I think. There will be a review pair that could potentially end up at a show in the east next year, but that would be Spatial Audio Lab's call. I really wish that folks could hear what I am listening to in my living room. It would be fun to have any of you over. There will be a complete setup in Salt Lake City area by January and I am sure audition arrangements could be made for anyone who wants to hear it along with a top end Spatial Audio Lab speaker. Of course this doesn't help any of you out East.... It is definitely the plan to have a review setup of both preamp and amps and have it reviewed by legitimate reviewers next year as early as possible. Perhaps sometime next year we can have them appear at a show in the east somewhere. |
And I am very much looking forward to fellow enthusiasts hearing the Raven preamp and Blackbird power amp. I’ve been a voice in the wilderness for about twenty-five years ... neither a member of the SET fraternity (well, maybe on the edge of it) nor mainstream Audio Research/Jadis/Conrad-Johnson push-pull pentode big-watt amplifiers dominating the hifi shows. A handful of people built the Karna amps, but many abandoned the difficult project halfway through. Don was one of the very few who persevered through two years of building prototypes that were far off the beaten path of mainstream tube gear. He’s had plenty of hands-on experience with the fiendishly difficult Citation II, the most complex amplifier of the Golden Age, and his own designs, the Valhalla (6L6) and Kootenai (KT88). Of all the people I know in the industry, Don is the most qualified to honestly tell me what is unrealistic and pie-in-the-sky, and what is practical and a good solution. He’s been there and done that. Oh, and he has good taste, too, which isn’t that common in the industry. You might think I’m being snarky about the "good taste" but I am perfectly serious. The industry has plenty of competent engineers, and whole hifi shows filled with high-powered marketers, but good taste? It’s not all that common, and I’ve been in the industry since 1973. |
Well... Lynn has lots of wild ideas, but the thing is that they are very well thought out, and they are based on years of technical experience with Tektronix. I learned many years ago in academia, and as part of my main career in forest ecology research, to listen to really smart people with wild ideas. Many of them were simply ahead of the mainstream thinking. The mainstream often ends up there.....eventually. Lynn suggests improvements and where practical, I try them. We finally ended up with a larger chassis that could accommodate all the things we wished to try. They are still under 19 inches so they fit any rack, since 19 inch is the traditional rack width. To my ear, it worked beautifully.... The final touch was the addition of old school gas VR tubes to further isolate the input tube supply from the drivers, and of course the move to KT66/6L6 or KT88 drivers. I think we are done finally. |
I agree. This is a stable topology, taking full advantage of specialty transformers designed by two of the world’s top designers, and using vacuum tubes that are in current production as well as ample NOS stocks. As mentioned earlier, it’s a very simple signal path, with only transformers and vacuum tubes, and fully balanced from input to output. Zero feedback, with the audio signal only propagating in the forward direction. |
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