Preamp Deal of the Century

Swampwalker - I've never tried the CBS-Hytron 6L6GC but I have tried MANY 6L6 variants. There are some real winners out there which bring out a special quality when used in the Supratek. I have some pretty rare tubes which I use including the 350b, KT77, KT66, and EL37. While they all have their own magic, I find the KT66's easier to listen to because they are the most liquid of the bunch. Of course they introduces other problems including a slight loss of detail and natural sonics in favor of more midrange richness. But... like I said, they are the extremely involving in this application. If you listen to this tube - notice the super-silky smoothness of vocals. The KT66's seem to gel the best with Mulard GZ rectifier tubes.

The 350B's are most likely the BEST tube overall in terms of power & realisim. But I find them less involving than the KT66. With the 350B's I like the Bendix 6106 rectifier as well as the MO-Valve U54 -- I cannot decide which I prefer.

Your choice in regulator/rectifier depends upon whether or not you wish to be "sucked in" or "blown away". In my system, the KT66's suck you in and the 350B's blow you away.
Two totally different states of mind as far as listening goes and which is truly better depends on you.

Harness - The Supratek preamps can be wired with balanced outputs. But the preamp is a SET and it is not possible to have it balanced from input to output. The only balanced (input to output) tube preamp I know of is BAT. Fully balanced requires a push-pull configuration which requires closely matched tubes.

Bwhite- Can you recommend some KT-66s. Not sure I can afford the 350Bs, unless anyone can recommend the new Chinese production.

Swampwalker, the KT66's I use are the Genalex Gold Lion KT66's which have clear glass, a brown base and gold script which reads "Gold Lion". I think the photo of my Supratek power supply shows these tubes.

Like I said in the earlier post, they are not the most accurate I've heard but they are the most involving. Liquidity to the max & seductive! They do have a tendency to push the vocals into the foreground and tend to make the instruments fall slightly behind. On the down side, this tube seems to bring about a bit more sibilance in a system than other tubes.

I think any GEC, MO-Valve, Genalex clear glass KT66 you can find will be very similar to the gold lion.

While these tubes are not exactly cheap. They can be found on ebay in nice pairs for $200 and up.

Of course this is relative but IMHO even $300 for a pair of vintage tubes will be money well spent. Once you hear how these tubes sound, you will not be able to go back.

The good thing is that in the regulator position, these tubes should last a very, very, very long time.

Anyone heard the GEC copy KT-66 by Shuguang from China?