Longho68,
Caveat the waiting period (as painfull as it is!), remember that those of us who bought the units brand new went trough the same agony. The only difference is that us who have the units now, ordered them earlier than you do. Nothing else, same pain, same anticipation, same wishfulthinking for the day the unit will arrive.
Having said that, the rewards are great my friend. I too was considering the Hovland preamp when I stumble on this thread. I am very glad I did!
My take is that I never heard a tube preamp that delivers as "hard" and as "pure" bass than the Supratek. The praises you heard about how great the midrange is, the delicacy of the midrange when it is called for by the source, IMHO is very much true. The highs compliments the two region very well as well. In short, I really believe that you will be happy!
Aesthetics? Man, if you like the picture on the gallery, you will be shocked how exotic the preamp really looks like in person with woods and all. In fact, I may be crossing the line here, I never wipe my preamp with regular cloth but with 3M static linth free ones . I use compressed air as much as possible to preserve the looks. It commands the room to say the least. Impressive? I can let you ask my friends who wants to buy the preamp from me on the spot by just looking at it! When they heard it, they were floored! I told them the waiting period and I guess some if not all are now in line like you for Mick's wonders.
Sit tight my friend! You made a very "musical" and wise investment.
Cheers!
