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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
alexberger
863 posts
 

I continued tuning my amplifier for the Hashimoto A-107 interstage transformer (IT).

I changed the load resistor from 57K to 39K Ohm. The difference in square wave overshoot is very small, but frequency response peak is just +0.5dB instead of +1.3dB.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tdDuNM15cziP4o5g9

But the most important - the rough upper mid coloration was gone with 39K.

I also increased 6sn7 idle current from 7.5mA and 9mA. When it was RC coupling before the idle current was 6.2mA.

In general, sound became more refined and organic with much better low level details. Now in addition to advantages that IT gives versus RC that I talked about before (like faster transients, better more detailed rhythm reproduction and bass control). I got more low level details, much more realistic drums kick/punch reproduction, piano is more real, as well as timbales, better instrument separation (less congestion on complex music), and more real musicians presentation in my room. 

Next step moving from an old amplifier box + power supply external maquette to two box solution (stereo amplifier + power supply).

https://youtu.be/Hro6eYBvb68

Post removed 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,621 posts
 

I changed the load resistor from 57K to 39K Ohm. The difference in square wave overshoot is very small, but frequency response peak is just +0.5dB instead of +1.3dB.

You can also see that bandwidth has opened up a bit. Something to keep in mind: when you load down that interstage transformer, it changes the load presented to the tube driving it. You might be able to further optimize the circuit by making changes in the driver tube circuit. Also, if I  were you I'd be try to sort out why the FR drops off so dramatically at the bottom end (is it the transformer or something else). 

alexberger
863 posts
 

Hi @atmasphere ,

The bottom end is predictable. ~8K 6sn7 (260v, 9mA) internal impedance and 70-80H transformer primary inductance gives -3db around 20Hz. Actually I measured -2.37dB at 20Hz and -3.62 at 15Hz.

According to plate voltage-current characteristics, 6sn7 has very small distortion (0.5-0.7% 150 Volt peak to peak) with both 39K and 57K Ohm load. To drive 6f6 it needs 40 Volt peak to peak. I thought about trying a 27K load, but with 27K we get ~2% distortion.
But I use Linlai 6sn7 and it doesn’t meet the classical 6sn7 spec plate voltage-current characteristics. I have a bunch of classical vt231 40x productions. It will be interesting to make measurements with these tubes.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,621 posts
 

The bottom end is predictable. ~8K 6sn7 (260v, 9mA) internal impedance and 70-80H transformer primary inductance gives -3db around 20Hz. Actually I measured -2.37dB at 20Hz and -3.62 at 15Hz.

@alexberger Here's something to keep in mind. If you are not using feedback, then its likely at either end of the bandwidth of the amp that the FR will fall off on a 6dB slope. Filter theory tells us that a 6dB slope introduces phase shift to 10x or 1/10th the cutoff frequency. So a 20Hz cutoff will manifest phase shift to 200Hz since there is no feedback correction.

The ear perceives phase shift of a single frequency very poorly, but over a band of frequencies it interprets it as tonality. At high frequencies the ear also uses phase to sense the sound stage. A high frequency rolloff above the audio band can cause darkness in the presentation. At low frequencies a rolloff will be perceived as a loss of impact.

Transformers have bandwidth limits. The smaller you make the transformer, the wider its limits can be. So you have a chance using an interstage transformer to have one that has good LF response- 5Hz is a good place to be. Because you are designing an SET you're dealing with a low frequency bandwidth issue in the output already. All I'm saying here is the less phase shift you present to the output section, the less phase shift will be present in the output.

If you're planning to use a sub with this system this might not be much of a concern. But of you really want to use a sub properly, it should be cut off no higher than about 80Hz otherwise it will tend to draw attention to itself, requiring that it be in the same place as the main speakers. If a sub is used, probably best to drive it with a preamp signal rather than that of the amp due to this bandwidth issue.

 

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