Preamp Deal of the Century

Hello Gang. ASA, any Canada geese hanging out with the gulls there? Your Clear Side anology and its relationship with up stream and down stream components is bang on here. Yes...I do hear this attribute and you are correct in your analysis. I have employed the black Kenrads in my pre for that very reason. They do offer more of a textured soundscape and sound a little more organic in my rig when compared to most of the others. However, this does depend on the genre of music that I am listening to at the time, as well as amplifier choice[tubes in my case]. In my honest opinion: Ones choice of gain tube[6sn7]in the supratek is not a liabilty [per say],but a very flexible option to have when fine tuning with any given high resolution system . The Clarity of the supratek, will definitively allow one the abilty to hear the changes in the source,the componentry,wires,tubes etc,.An Example: the RCA redbase 5692 is far and away the tube of choice when used in my Luminescence B.....the Kenrad by comparison, would rank way down the list of nos tubes in that particular pre.Vice versa for the syrah[go figure]as mine does not seem to respond well to the 5622,at least in my rig. I have marched over [with my syrah in tow] to quite a few friends places [as well as a box of nos 6sn7's]and in every case, the syrah has removed a blanket of fog in each and every one of these systems[all very musical and high end by anybody'standards]By doing so,I have learned a great deal about the "voice" of the supratek and how it synergizes with different components. Example: One friend uses the Conrad Johnson MV-52 amplifier employed with nos mullard el-34's [beautiful little amp BTW]to drive JM labs model??? The Kenrad is "NOT the tube of choice in his system as we both preferred the syvania wgt's by a wide margin.The sound was a great deal tighter with the sylvanias in the syrah when listening to live blues and jazz. Another friend uses the meadowlark Shearwaters driven by mfa 120b monos in triode. These amps are running Genelex KT-88's and are wonderful sounding instruments. Here; the Kenrads sound incredible in the supratek.The stage is huge, literally holographic,with instruments and voices in full scale.A really enjoyable experience to be sure, made his Audible illusions 3a sound anemic,thin,and 2 dimensional.[Yes....he has ordered one] Prior to inserting in the syrah,his system was always very impressive in a "hifi sense" being that it resolved a heck of lot of imformation from the source with good dynamic range,great bass as well as clarity. I direct comparison with the Syrah, it sounds like good "hifi" but the Syrah gets you way closer to the event making the the 3a sound like its broken. I am a firm believer in getting the tonal balance right, first and foremost,then tuning the system to yeild as much resolution as one can achieve in a given room.The supratek is the heart and soul of each and every system I have heard it in! Enjoy.

Could it be that tube rolling is like mixing and matching cables in ones system? Compensation for certain attributes one thinks or feels that their system maybe lacking. Adding color here and there to fill in and round out what a particular system's owner may feel their rig is missing.Is this hopefull pursuit of accuracy one of reliving the actual event or a surreal pipe dream of an occasion that never happened? Tom

Good point Tom, but let me ask you a question, what component in ANY system isn't adding a degree of coloration? And what system recreates the real event? The pipedream is to think otherwise or that one technology supercedes another by virtue of the fact it is the preferred one. A nice simile is fine for now but I don't expect that the technology for reproduced as real has yet arrived or is on the immediate horizon. And besides, what would we all do if we didn't have something to "tweek"? Musical enjoyment should always be the goal, reality although a fine objective is unobtainable, like recreating the big bang, it only happens once.

Regarding my last post: I should qualify things for those that are following this thread.My commentary was based solely on the use of vinyl as the source for comparison.

Hey Kids,
I'll be looking for Mick's "wonder" at CES.
Competing with the World's competition,
Why should he be afraid?
I know, he just wants to save us money.
Lucky Us!