2. amps-preamps
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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
larryi
4,101 posts
 

A local store builds and sells their own high end tube gear and their own horn-based speakers.  For most of their demonstrations of the better horn systems they use their 350B amplifier.  One day when the boss was away, two of the younger employees spent the afternoon swapping in speakers acquired in trade-ins to see how they sound.  While all the speaker sounded quite different, they all sounded amazingly good to these two.  They could not believe how good even Polk speakers sounded.  It then dawned on them that the amplifier mattered a lot.  One did not get that kind of "transformation" of the speaker with the likes of Conrad Johnson amps, for example.  That is not to say that the CJ isn't good, it is just that the 350B amp had a particular character to its sound and that character played well with a wide range of speakers.

I tend to find that tubes related to the 350B do sound nice with a wide range of gear.  I tend to like 6L6 and KT 66 tubes (similar to 350B).  I run a somewhat similar, albeit much less powerful tube, the 349 (in pushpull) and I like it a lot.

fthompson251's avatar
fthompson251
485 posts
 

@lynn_olson  - Is the Raven Preamp AES48 standard balanced? They don't have a price listed for it that I can find.

pindac's avatar
pindac
2,864 posts
 

I'm very much hoping their is a build thread for the Speakers to be designed.

This is an area I am progressing into, as I have recently on a few occasions heard Speakers that are a a bespoke design and are as a end sound, what I believe are a challenge to my ESL's.

My personal preference for a Speaker does seem to have changed and a curiosity is now taking hold.

Even the idea of modding owned Cabinet Speakers and attaching Internal Wiring to a Drivers Voice Coil as suggested by another Speaker Builder on here, has my curiosity and is intended to be experienced when advisories are offered.

lynn_olson's avatar
lynn_olson
361 posts
 

To the best of my knowledge, the price of the preamp is $5000. Possibly less when purchased as a bundle with the power amps. The XLR output should be AES compliant, driving both phase equally.

donsachs's avatar
donsachs
299 posts
 

I believe the preamp is $5500.  Search for spatial audio lab, find the site and look at the revelation series and preamp and you will find it.  On the preamp, it is fully balanced and transformer coupled to output.  Pin 1 is shield and grounded to chassis, pin 2 is XLR + phase and pin 3 is XLR - phase.  It will drive any power amp with XLR connections, and will happily drive a 10K amp input impedance.

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