Asa, I will happily disagree with your advice to Granny. I hate to look back on all the time I wasted listening to inferior tubes, pc's, isolation footers, etc. I wish I had arrived at my current combination of gear and ancillary products in my sytem from day one. I enjoy listening to my system at it's best rather than taking some sort of hit or miss journey along the way. Many here on the 'Gon and at AA have helped me enormously and I can't believe how much better my system is now. It is night and day.
When I make my next upgrade, I will again ask for advice from owners on how to achieve the optimum sound of my new gear right from the start. Maybe its just me, but I have never understood the rationale, "No, don't listen to the best yet, try some inferior tubes, pc's, ic's, etc. so you will have something to compare the best to."
I think experimenting is fine, especially if you are talking about fine tuning. But I'm one who had rather ask for a consensus on what is best and if there is general agreement, that's the way I go. I don't want to re-invent the wheel. If enough people tell me a certain tube sucks or is simply inferior, I don't need to find out for myself. Experience has taught me that a number of guys here know their stuff and I don't need to hear mediocre tubes or whatever just to say I heard them.
I think I may have been the first or second Supratek owner to try WE 350B's in their Supratek. Looking back, I wish I had put them in the day I received my Chardonnay. Instead, I listened to several other good (and sometimes expensive) regulators only to eventually try the WE's. The 350B's are the cat's meow for me.
Most of what we post here is subjective, but in my opinion if Granny wants to get the best out of his Supratek, especially with the world-class JC 1's, he should use WE regulators, Ken Rad, Syl or Tung Sol (round plate) 6SN7's and a Mullard GZ 34 rectifier.
I am sure there are others that will disagree with my choices, but I have tried many other combinations and for me, there is no going back.
I will admit that at times I have enjoyed hearing the "step up" in sound from tube rolling, adding power cords, isolation, star grounding all of my equipment, etc. However, I wish I had known from day one what I know now because it would have saved me a lot of time, money and crappy sound.
When I make my next upgrade, I will again ask for advice from owners on how to achieve the optimum sound of my new gear right from the start. Maybe its just me, but I have never understood the rationale, "No, don't listen to the best yet, try some inferior tubes, pc's, ic's, etc. so you will have something to compare the best to."
I think experimenting is fine, especially if you are talking about fine tuning. But I'm one who had rather ask for a consensus on what is best and if there is general agreement, that's the way I go. I don't want to re-invent the wheel. If enough people tell me a certain tube sucks or is simply inferior, I don't need to find out for myself. Experience has taught me that a number of guys here know their stuff and I don't need to hear mediocre tubes or whatever just to say I heard them.
I think I may have been the first or second Supratek owner to try WE 350B's in their Supratek. Looking back, I wish I had put them in the day I received my Chardonnay. Instead, I listened to several other good (and sometimes expensive) regulators only to eventually try the WE's. The 350B's are the cat's meow for me.
Most of what we post here is subjective, but in my opinion if Granny wants to get the best out of his Supratek, especially with the world-class JC 1's, he should use WE regulators, Ken Rad, Syl or Tung Sol (round plate) 6SN7's and a Mullard GZ 34 rectifier.
I am sure there are others that will disagree with my choices, but I have tried many other combinations and for me, there is no going back.
I will admit that at times I have enjoyed hearing the "step up" in sound from tube rolling, adding power cords, isolation, star grounding all of my equipment, etc. However, I wish I had known from day one what I know now because it would have saved me a lot of time, money and crappy sound.