Preamp Deal of the Century

I received my cortese linestage about 10 days ago. My cortese has one pair of RCA inputs and one pair balanced outputs, no source selector. Prior to the cortese I was connecting my DAC directly to my power amp. With the cortese, the noise floor of the recordings is not so apparent as it was in the no preamp config but all the detail is still there. One of the revelations of going to a no preamp config was that I found a song in my CD collection that has a very low-level of feedback in the recording that only lasted about a second. It frustrated me later, because at the the time I was so engrossed in the music that I forgot to make a note of the CD and track number, so I never could find the song title even though I went through my CD collection several times looking for the track. After I installed the cortese I happened to be playing the same CD in my jukebox player and listening from another room when I heard the feedback again. For the curious, the track is "simple faith" on CD "simple things" by chuck loeb. The feedback occurs on the left channel.

The first night the cortese was in my system I wept (literally, and I am a 6'5" former marine) with joy. I've had an occaisonal recording give me the chills before, but this was the first time I ever had one make me cry. The recording was "over the rainbow" performed by Kirk Whalum, it was the most beautiful sax and piano piece I had ever heard. At the time I was using stock tubes. Don't be misled by my previous statement and think the cortese is all syrupy and euphonic, because IMO the cortese leans slightly to the accurate and revealing side of things while maintaining a very natural presentation of the music.

In my system the cortese is extremely quiet with no self-noise or tube rush apparent at all. The only noise I ever heard was an occaisonal tic maybe once a day while my nos tubes were settling in. I have about 200 hours on the preamp right now. I wonder how long till breakin is complete? My current nos tubes are sylvania vt-231, rca 6l6gc, and sylvania 5ar4 (big bottle).

Great Jazzdude! Yes, I would say that the Supra's err just a smidgen towards "clearness" as opposed to sterilty; because they are not hyper-detailed, are liquid and not upfront I don't think they could be characterized as analytic in any way. I love my Joule, but its lushness is not what I recommend for everyone. Personally, I love wallowing in lush-ness, but I know most people do not, especially people coming from SS systems, or even tube pre/SS amp systems. In this sense, the Supra's are perfect for most people, and given the cost/performance ratio, a real no-brainer for 90% of even the hard core people out there. As I said, perhaps an Aesthetix IO with dual PS's or an AN M8 can take it out, but below ten grand (or more...), and with systems of 50K or less (or more in some instances...), its really a foregone decision. And that's why I've been pushing this piece so hard. Not in an absolute sense, but in an absolutely wonderful sense that more people can really make a BIG jump in their systems for a minimum of scratch, and let them start putting the money into other parts of the system where the Supra's now let them hear what some people have been saying and they just didn't/couldn't believe it. Its a shame that, usually, those super magical systems cost the price of a Mercedes, but with the Supra more people will be that much closer - and that's a great thing... Happy for you.

BTW, NOS tubes sputter a bit now and then. Doesn't mean they are going out, just the way they are sometimes. The right channel Tung round plate 6SN7 in mine was whining at a very low level last night and gone today. Did it two months ago also, so who knows, still sounds great.

my syrah is finally here. i'm just getting it settled in, and am initially impressed. the two best qualities about the pre for me are clearly it's dynamic energy (it just sounds totally unhindered), and it's smoooth presentation. i have a feeling i'll hear more as i continue to listen...

btw, from some initial tube rolling, my favorite 6SN7 is a round plate black glass tung-sol, NOT the kenrad black glass vt231 (which was a little dull compared to the tungsol, and noisy). i was surprised... i mean, that black glass kenrad is AWESOME in my vac 70/70.

i also have some national union black glass vt231 and sylvania 6SN7W (not the metal base) that i've tried: the NUs were along the same lines as the kenrad, but maybe a little darker, and the sylvania were on the dry side. the tungsol is a really nicely balanced tube for this pre, and is QUIET.

in my all tube system,i found the mullard gz 33,tung sol 5881,tung sol blacked out ,round plate 6sn7's,rca 6fq5a,and we417a to be the best combination.tube rolling with this pre is just amazing,it can transform a very good preamp into a great preamp.vibration control is also a necessity,as the top plate rings like a bell.bottom line is iv'e never had more fun with my system,than when i installed the syrah

Congratulations Dennis! Glad to know you've found a good tube combo for your system! The Syrah quite simply transforms a system into something much more.

Regarding the Ken Rads. There are actually 3 different versions, each with unique sonics. I know you said the KR's you had were VT-231 but make sure they actually say VT-231. There are KR's which do not say VT-231 (they usually say KEN RAD and that's it) and these are the darkest (dullest) of the lot. Still quite good but not to everyone.

Yes the KRBG are very good in some systems but not necessarily good in all systems. The Ken Rads tend to burn a little hotter than other tubes and wear out faster for whatever reason. As a result they can be noisy - especially if they were previously used in an amp.