Preamp Deal of the Century

Dear Slowhand,

Thank you for starting this thread. I decided to order a Chardonnay preamp in June 2004 after reading the review in 6moons.com and the enormous information in this thread. I received my unit in September and has been listening to it for over 2 months. I think it is time for me to join in the discussion and assure those who is still hesitating. I am using a system that is quite high end : Watt/ puppy6 + Emmlabs mod Philips SACD 1000/ DAC6 combo, Melody 2A3 Push-pull monoblocks. Preamp I had owned previously included ARC SP9, Convergent SL1 signature, Matisse reference, Marantz7 (remake) and lastly Nagra PLP. I have been using Nagra for a few years and it is an excellent Pre. It is expansive too, over 3 times that of Chardonnay. I cannot say Chardonnay is a better preamp than Nagra, but I can say I am not missing Nagra in my system (the Nagra is still in hand) and have no temptation to re-connect it since the arrival of Chardonnay. It is enough at the moment. I will write about my experience with Chardonnay when there is time.

YW

Just picked up a Music Reference RM-200 to amp a Chardonnay, using a half-recipe of Chris VH Cat-5 to drive Hales Revelation 2s. The RM-200 has 8, 4, 2, and 1 Ohm taps, with a hybrid design that allows the lower taps to produce successively *more* power (contrary to most amps) and rely increasing heavily on the pre's amplification; i.e., using a lower tap shifts the total (amp + pre amp) amplification more towards the pre, requiring less from the amp's KT-88s. In the Chardonnay I'm using a 1955 Mullard CV 378 (GZ-37) rectifier, 1940's era Sylvania 6L6GA regulators, and 1940's era Ken-Rad Black Glass VT-231 line tubes.

With a tube CDP source, high end extension is very good, with sweet harmonics, a delicate, long decay on bells, and a "splash" on cymbals; mid-range has a true tube bloom, but not too much; mid-bass is tight and crisp, and bass, while perhaps not the absolute end-all in SS composure, is still quite good and low and strong enough to be felt through my feet when sitting six feet away with no sub-woofer. All this collapses if the source is not well mastered (more the rule than the exception) or if the volume is at a background listening level (sound is then very good, but--presumably in part due to the Fletcher-Munson effect--not at its best). I think improvements can be made in depth and soundstage, but I'll look at the room and isolation tweaks to try to capture that.

All-in-all, a nice synergy with the Supratek.

Hey guys, any recommedation on the 6C4 for Chenin? Cheers~

Hi Ecmlee. I wasn't aware that Mick had chosen the 6c4 in the chenin.My understanding is mick had implemented the common 6922/6dj8,s along with the 6j6 for phono gain in the new chenin .The 6c4 is no longer being produced so I would assume Mick has a supply of nos tubes.What brand of 6c4 is in yours? The 6c4 is 7 pin single triode or basically 1/2 of a 12au7 dual triode. He probably selected this tube for it's superior linearity over the common 12au7. The 12au7 and deratives are rather mediocre sounding valves for use in high end audio circuits[especially phono stages]. That said: The 6c4 is notorious for being microphonic. I have repaired a few guitar amps as well as some older organ amps that used a 6c4. I think that Conrad Johnson also used the 6c4 in a few of their earlier PV series preamps if I recall???? The euro equivalent would be an ec-90. Mullard made a box plate version called the m-8080, this is a good sounding tube. Other equivalents for rolling the 6c4 would be a 6135 or a 6100.Because the 6c4 is prone to be microphonic and had me pulling out my hair on more than 1 occasion[read too many]. Are you experiencing any microphonics? I found the 1980's GE 6c4[grey plate] the least microphonic and most consistent of the bunch, however I preferred the extension and tone of the mullard 8080. Conrad Johnson should have a good supply of selected 6c4's. Hope this helps. cheers and all the best.

I have 6c4's on my Chenin. The JAN Phillips that comes with stock is reasonable.

At present, I am using the M8080 Mullard tubes. Very quiet and I am not having any microphonic issues. I posted a while back about several 6C4 tubes I tried in the Supratek. Up to now, I am still convince that they are the "money" tubes on the phono section of the Chenin and not the 6922's. Although I am using a Telefunken on the 6922 position, my observation was that the 6C4 gives immediate feedback as to the tonal quality of the phono section when trying different varities. I rolled 6 pairs of different manufacturers of 6922's and I end up getting confused trying to identify if there's an improvement doing so. Maybe there was but I cannot comment on which was the best tube for me on this position from my experoment. Whereas the 6C4, as I said, the difference was immediate!

My recommendations as of today are (in order of being the "best" in my system) as follows:

Mullard M8080 (so far the best for me!)
Raytheon Triple Mica
National Union (looks like an RCA)Black Plates
RCA
Tungsol

What I found a waste of time are:

Motorola
Crosley
RCA Gray Plates
G.E. (maybe not the same type as Ecclectique is refering to)