Counterpoint SA-3.1 and 5.1

I love the SA-5.1 and actually own 3 of them. The first one I bought for about $1100. Later I got two more for a lot less. To my ear, these are the prettiest pre-amps, very "liquid" and transparent.

But there is a problem. Mike Elliot's equipment, made during the Counterpoint years, is not stable. It is constantly breaking down. I have had two repaired by Mike and another repaired by Harry Colby, and now a power supply is down. Its frustrating to have equipment that is not reliable, no matter how good it sounds. Because of these problems I got fed up and I tried to switch to solid state, but couldn't find anything I like as well.

By the way, way back when I considered buying a pair of Counterpoint amps but Dave Wasserman owner of Audio Exchange in NYC told me not to because they were so unstable, they would not work for long. I do think this is why Counterpoint went out of business and Mike started a new company.

Mike .... I love your stuff. How about doing mods to make it more stable and giving your upgraded gear a 20 year warranty like Bryston does?

Hi Elia0224,

Do you have stability problems with a stock unit, or an upgraded unit? In fact I expect that 20 year old unit without any touch can have problems, especially a tube unit. but if it is an upgraded unit at Mike Eliott, than it is another topic.

Does anyone have the full tube complement for the SA 5.1? I'm thinking of pulling it out of storage and hooking it back up. Since Altavista shut there doors, I cannot find any info on these preamps! Thanks

all info is from the Jan 2014 site is Here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140117194541/http://www.altavistaaudio.com/

SA-5.1 Uses two 6DJ8 types in the phono stage, two 6DJ8 type in the line stage, one 6CA4 type, one 5651, one 6JC6A and one 6GC5.