Preamp Deal of the Century

Hey Gang. I suppose what one might call a tweak,another may call it a component.In defence of stevem and keeping things in perspective, I certainly concur with every point he made in numerical order, as they would most definitevly qualify for a top shelf system for making great music and more often than not will make a major impact to be sure. Heck...I own one of everthing he mentions on the list with the exception the digital dac stuff. However... I have also heard every single one of those components mentioned on the list sound mediocre at best, for a number of reasons[my gear included here gang].I personally believe resonance and vibration control is imperative when one gets to the level of equipment mentioned on that list. Tweaks?? I don't think so Stevem. Optimizing a system of that calibre is paramount and really should be considered the common denominator here.

Once a system reaches a certain point of refinement (synergy), finding components (or cables, tubes, etc) which further IMPROVE the system can be VERY difficult. Simply replacing a component with a more expensive component or one which is rumored to be better, doesn't always produce an improvement in overall sound.

Tweaks are an effective way of further refining a system once this point is reached.

Additionally - tweaks can be an effective means of obtaining synergy between components that do not synergize naturally.

**THE** power cord for Supratek? I have what I believe to be the best power cord EVER for the Supratek. I was planning to post info on it but the designer just changed his design. I want to compare the new design to the old before making any recommendations - just incase the new is better than the old or vice versa.

The new version is supposed to have twice as many conductors as the old version & that's the only change I know of.

The price of the cords when I purchased my "new version" a week ago was $250 for a 6 footer. I think he offers a trial period too but I'm not sure.

The new cord is on its way from Canada and I'll post more info once I've heard it.

Bwhite, the most effective way to reach the synergy we all wish to achieve is thru high speed mechanical grounding techniques. Ground is the point of reference,and the most efficient way to reach the reference is direct coupling..Tom

Nice posts guys...you *are* a civilised lot on this thread!
Having played devil's advocate and illicited some good responses, I would agree that some final tweaks to an already good system is icing on the cake and therefore can be beneficial.

Cello: your comments are nicely put and I've 'been there and done that' (ie, implementing a lot of tweaks over my time). A lot of you also hit the nail on the head by stating that system synergy is the key to good sound. I guess my simple point is if you feel you are missing something and feel the need to tweak, look first at your major components (such as your loudspeaker) and see if a fundamental change can be made. No amount of tweaking will improve a lack-lustre speaker for example.

Ecclectique: Like you, I have a lot of different equipment at my disposal, I may have left the tweaking urge behind some time ago. I find these days that it is much more challenging (and satisfying) trying to add a Raven ribbon tweeter and requisite crossover to my Proac Response 2.5 loudspeaker etc...etc...than say playing around with tweaks.

In the end, to each his own and we all do in audio what we are able to understand. I don't thinking tweaking is a bad thing and it keeps the fire burning for audiophiles. I guess instead of calling it tweaking we should call it 'fine tuning' to add some credibility to the whole issue.

Regards,

Steve M.