Preamp Deal of the Century

Hello Larry. Congratulations on your new Supratek. I can appreciate Mick's take on tube rolling as many users with little or no experience with vacuum tubes can mess things up very easily with the use of improper substitutes,weak, tired or bad tubes and such.All the Supratek preamps are very precision instruments and designed with the tubes employed to operate within the specific voltages, tolerances and parameters of the tubes used in his circuit. That said: The supratek preamps are rather sensitive to the quality of the tubes used in the circuit and will certainly respond to a specific tubes sonic signature to "voice" the preamp in your system. I know the thread here is an extremely long one to read back through Larry but it would be in your best interest to browse back for references as many tubes will elevate the bar to a whole higher level than the stock tubes supplied with the preamp. You may want to type in my handle or Bwhites to reference our observations.Hope this helps.

Fantastic. Thank you. I think I may a couple of months to research!

A few revelations happened today... I got a new cartridge to replace my Shelter 901. I settled on the Benz LP Ebony because Judith Spotheim, the maker of my turntable & arm, OEM's the cartridge and highly recommends it as a great match - plus George Cardas and Jeff Joseph also use a Benz(ish) cartridge on their La Luce tables. Anyhow, the Benz requires a >500 input impedance and to my knowledge, the Supratek's come with a 10, 100, 1000 and 47K input switch.

Has anyone here changed the impedance input switch on their Supratek? What's involved?

Revelation number two. With the Benz, I no longer think the KT66's are a very good tube in the regulator. The 350B's are definately better now. No question. And involving too! Very, very nice!

.
Brian,
.
It is great to hear you sound so happy with your system. I agree that the 350B is the end of the path and as good as it gets.
.
When you are in the mood and in a position, try to get a listen to a ZYX UNIverse. It is just stunning beyond explanation. The Ebony is a terrific cartridge, but the UNIverse is just Manna from Heaven.
.
Rgds,
Larry
.

Bwhite, I see you are heavily into vinyl. Could you comment on how the Cortese phono stage might compare with other elite stages? Also, could you share any experiences between the Cortese and Chenin in particular the phono stages? As you can tell .. I am sitting on the fence at this point.