Preamp Deal of the Century

Hi Gang. Yeah, the WE 350b's are certainly "crazy money" for use as regulatory duty... however... nothing else even comes close in my rig. Hey Bryan...glad to hear you gave the bendix the run-in time it requires, it is imperative with most any new tube, and even more so with full wave restifiers. One more extremely important parameter regarding full wave rectifiers... is that each side of rectifier must test indentical to the other side { or no less than 2 or 3% of each other} and at least 95% of a new one. I consider the bendix 6106 as the best of the bunch in both the Syrah and the cortese in my rig with the gz34 coming a close second. Cheers Gang

Ecclectique - to break in the Bendix, I ran my Cortese power supply 24/7 for about a month without turning it off except to re-connect the Preamp for listening sessions.

At first the Bendix seemed almost out of phase and disorienting. I hated that tube. But.... once broken in its pretty amazing. I need to pick up a few more.

The only nit about the Bendix is how long it takes to heat up.

I have just ordered the Chardonnay and was wondering if it requires a burn in period or would it be good straight of the bat.

Also in the earlier threads there is a lot of talk about the Ken Rad, Sylvania and Tung Sol VT-231 etc.
The more recent threads talk more of the GE 6SN7GTB

What do you guys recommend now.
Thanks,Jay

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Yes, any of the Supratek pre-amps will get much better with several hours of break in. The tubes themselves also need break-in.
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You will probably hear improvements from 100-200 hours of use. Easiest method would be to run your CD player 24/7 on repeat at low volume for a week.
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The best 6SN7's for my system by far have clearly been the NOS Tungsol, Black Glass, Round Plates.
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Do let the Supratek fully break in and do about a month's worth of listening before you start rolling tubes. You will learn a ton this way and end up enjoying the process a great deal more.
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Congratulations on a great decision - you will just love the Supratek.
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Rgds, Larry
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I am using the Tungsol Round Plates Black Glass VT-231 as well on my Chenin. I stock up with several pairs because I noticed that the price of them tubes increases everytime I check them. I tried Kenrads, Sylvania, RCA, etc. recommended here by others but the Tungsol is the clear winner in my system.

I bought a pair recently which tested at 85 to 90% of NOS (~2100 to 2200 per side tested on my calibrated Hickok 6000A)and been running it for a month now. Last night out of curiosity, I re-tested the tubes again to see if they degrade somehow (the preamp does its job at about 4 hours a day minimum). What do you know, still very close if not the same to the original reading I got as per notes on my tube notebook dated last week of July! Not gassy, and life test is perfect(you can do this on the 6000A).

My point is that if you can find a pair that tested (very important)and is at least 80% of NOS (2500 micro-mhos on Hickok 6000A as a reference)
and cost reasonably lower than NOS ($225 last time I look)then you can save some money........................ for the WE350B in the future.