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.
Understood. If a thread topic generates quality insight, information and perspectives from genuinely knowledgeable and earnest contributors then this is what happens. People can discern quality discourse from intentional agitating trolling. Charles |
I am super excited that I will be able to be at PAF on Jun-23 to hear this amp and meet Don, Lynn, and others. Frankly I had pretty much written off Agon due to the continuous sniping and politicalization (either way) of all topics UNTIL this thread! Best thread and info I have seen in the last couple years. Thank you to all whom have contributed. |
Conventional wisdom is that caps etc take a while to run in so do you have to run in the whole design for a a while to get the true sense of it and then tinker with the component parts thereafter.... and then wait for them to run in again before making an evaluation? @whitestix Usually a thing like a coupling cap will reveal its character fairly quickly. We've been doing this since the 1970s and in that time have yet to see a coupling cap change so dramatically during break-in that it exceeds the character of another, better sounding cap with the same time on it. So you can audition them easily right out of the box. So far the Teflon dielectrics have proven themselves over and over again. A regard paper and oil as very nice sounding parts as well, but they can develop a voltage drop across them which can throw off operating points in the design; IMO not worth the return shipping and frustration! @lynn_olson I've been harping about the audibility of the higher orders for a very long time. Nice to see some agreement in this regard.
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@donsachs @lynn_olson @thom_at_galibier_design I confirmed a theory I had about OPTs over the weekend. You might give this one a try; its inexpensive. Replace the bolts that hold the OPT together. Typically these are made of steel and are insulated from the transformer by fiber or plastic shoulder washers. You can get non-magnetic stainless bolts to replace the steel bolts. Its not a big change, but in the case of SETs or lower powered tube amps in general, every drop counts. I measured about a 7% increase in amplifier power. I suspect this will vary depending on the transformer design as well as the specific alloy of stainless bolt used. The shoulder washers are supposed to take care of the problem of a magnetic short of course and for the most part they do. But they don't do the job perfectly and I suspect that since this technique is 70-80 years old, tradition has set in and caused no-one to look into it further. I found out decades ago that the mounting bolt in a toroid transformer, commonly made of common steel, would heat up more than the transformer because the actual toroidal mag field was sloppier than theory. So the bolt was a short to the field. By replacing it with non-magnetic stainless the transformer ran at a lower temperature. I've been working on a low power PP tube amp recently so decided to give this a try. |
