Preamp Deal of the Century


If anyone is looking for a true "World Class" preamp at a very fair price..heed my advice. I just recieved a Supratek Syrah preamp that was hand built by Mick Maloney in Western Australia, and it is absolutely beautiful! This preamp is the best deal you will ever find. I would put it up against any preamp out there for both looks and sound. Price? $2500 for the Syrah (includes Killer Phono stage). Not into phono? Try the Chardonney line stage for $2100. Don't get me wrong, I am not associated with this company. I am just a very happy owner! This preamp is VERY dynamic, yet liquid. It conveys the sound of music better than any other preamp that I have ever heard! You can check out the Supratek website at www. cantech.net.au
slowhand
Braro,

Mine (Chenin) uses 6922 and M8080(6C4). I do not know about the M8081. I do not see any markings that says Chenin or Syrah on mine either.

"When you mention "master volume" are you refering to the adjustable gain on the back of the pre?"

The Syrah has a "master level switch" on the back panel which has 5 positions. Does your preamp have the same?

Mine does not. Maybe because my preamp has an optional independent (L and R) balance control. So Mick did not include the Master Level Switch.

Ask Mick directly. I am pretty sure he will calrify whatever doubts you have.
CORRECTION!

Braro,

My mistake! My preamp has a label for both the PS and the pre which says "Chenin", date of manufacture, and serial number to the location you specified previously.

cheers!
Hello Braro. Your pre is in fact the Chenin,identifiable by it's tube topology in the phono stage. The original Syrah and the cortese phono stage employed the 6gk5 and the 417/5842 family of dual triodes. Mick elected to use the more common 6922/6dj8 and 6J6 dual triodes for the phono stage of the Chenin. Hey gang.... there are many nos substitutes or deratives for both the 6J6 and the 6922.The 6j6 can be substituted with many drop in deratives such as the British made m8081,the telefunken ecc91 as well as a host of many others. Regarding the 6dj8/6922 dual triode.It is a relatively common tube and for many years has been the tube of choice for the phono stage of almost every major commercial company. There are a lot of sonic flavours to the 6922 family of triodes although the best examples of the tube can be rather pricy for tube rolling experimentation. I am not sure of what brand of 6922 that Mick is supplying with the chenin but I would suspect the Chenin is delivered with a currently made tube from russia or china. If that is infact the case here, and if you think it sounds great now...WOWZA!.... I can assure all of you here that your in for a very major surprise here as any one of the 60's examples of that tube type from manufacturers like seimens, telefunken, amperex,mullard etc will just flat out "knock your socks off" as a substitute here, and give one a lot more options to voice and dial in the sonic flavour of the phono stage with ones cartridge of choice! Just a word of caution though.... The 6922 family of dual triodes can be prone to microphonics and can also be noisey right out of the box, never a good thing in any high gain phono stage let alone the supratek. Those here with a stock of nos 6922/6dj8/ecc88/ecc188's and cca's may want to roll them here and post your findings. For those that don't have nos stock of the 6dj8/6922 family... I have a relatively inexpensive tube recommendation that's a definative sleeper tube substitute here and with little risk or liabilty. I suppose we can call it a nos tube as it was actually manufactured strictly for the Russian Miltary before the Soviet empire's collapse. The 6n23eb can be found out there [with a little searching] and every example of this tube is extremely quiet, sounds nothing like the hard and glarey sovtek examples being manufactured today. The triode sections are tighter than any other example of this tube type including the legendary cca's from seimen and telefunken.
Hello all,
I'm from Italy and apologize for my poor English.
After reading this subject many times I'm ready to joining the "club", as i'm ordering today or tomorrow a Cortese. My current pre is ARC ls5 mk2 mod by GNSC, 7308s siemens outfitted, i really love it ims, but planning on a return to vinyl i need a pre-phono too.
I'm thinking now to keep my ls5 as linestage and Cortese as phono,then ....I'll decide which one will be the "winner" ims.
My system:
AA Capitole mk2--Gyrodeck sme309 Ruby2 .7v
Arc ls5 mk2.....
Goldmund 29M
Sonus Faber Amati.

Here is my little concern: Cortese or Grange? (the latter could be clearly better than arc allowing me to sell it)

Thanks everyone sharing opinions on my plan.
Sandro
One thing you guys have to remember is that there are Suprateks out there that use other tubes in the phono stage. Mine is one, it uses only 6c45pi. Cello's is another, his uses (correct me if I am wrong Larry) 2 6c45pi and 2 6922. The 6c45pi are not part of the 417a/5842 family, regardless of what anyone says.

I guess it proves that any Supratek is truly a custom piece. I have not heard of any 2 that are exactly the same. So I guess what I am saying is you cannot look at tube topology to identify a model. Everybody says that the Syrah only has one tube in the ps. Wrong!

Joe