Preamp Deal of the Century

I'm sold!
I just ordered a Supratek Chardoney and now the problem is the waiting part. I ordered mine with the a Home Theater pass thru and a remote. Thanks for the info Bwhite and Slowhand.

The HT pass thru is good if you want to combine a home theater set-up with your two channel stereo. When you activate it the preamp gives up the volume control to the HT processor.

Thanks a lot for the info Bwhite, I will email Mick and cancel the pass thru modification.
If I remember correctly I read on another thread that you used to have an EMC-1, how does it sound with the Supratek?

thanks again,

Bwhite, again thanks for the advice, hopefully Mick will not be upset with me for cancelling the pass thru.
With the remote control, Mick said that he is still not sure which remote he will use due to the fact that he was not happy with the last one he used. He assured me though that by the time he gets to start working on my preamp he already have made his decision on which remote to use.

I just got reply from Mick and he will not be adding the pass thru on mine. He also said the job sheet has been done-dropped on my unit so now all I need to do is patiently wait.Bwhite and Slowhand, I just wanted to thank you guys for all the info they are very much appreciated.

I just asked Mick for an extra XLR output on my preamp, he said he will charged an extra $50 because it's more work than a regular RCA output. To me the $50 bucks is pretty much worth it.I can't wait 'till it's done.

Gentlemen, my Supratek Chardonay arrive a few days ago. It's only been few days and I'm really trying my best not to listen to it,oh hell I finally broke down last night and did some serious listening.
I can sum up my experience from last night in two words "goosebumps time". Those who are still waiting, hang in there guys the reward is way much more than you can imagine.
I posted a picture of it, click here if you're interested in what it looks like. Happy Listening to Everybody. And thanks to all the guys who helped me decide on buying this preamp. More on how it sounds like next time.

I ordered mine towards the end of March, but I cancelled my supposedly remote control option which I think made a difference.
I am actually in Seattle, WA but if I am in the Washington DC area your welcome to come by. Hang in there, it's really what Bhite and others say it is, simply stunning in everyway.

My Chardonay came with Sovtek 6N8P, with Chinese letterings on the glass so I'm assuming it's Chinese made. I have not listened to them as I followed the advice of Bwhite and others on the Ken-Rad VT-231.I am currently waiting for a pair Tung-Sol VT-231 round plates and Raytheon VT-231 which I will be comparing with the Ken-Rads. This should be fun in the next couple of weeks.
On a side note, one of the Supratek owners on AA mentioned the the stock Chinese Sovteks 6N8P were actually not bad at all,If I remember it correctly he mentined that it may even be slightly better than the Raytheon VT-231s.

Hi Jewel, mine took exactly four days including a weekend. I called fedex when the unit arrived in the country and had them fax me a copy of the 2 forms that's needed, I filled them out and faxed it to their office in Tennessee. They also charged my fedex account $130 for duties.

Like many had mentioned before that tube type is best on certain systems and not that great on others, on mine the Raytheon VT-231's (brown base) are the best so far followed by the Tung sol VT-231's and Ken RAd 231's. On my system the Raytheon has more refined extended highs and just the right slam complementing the already good bottom end of the Chardonay.
And the mids, oh so sweet midrange, quite lovely if I might add. I need to get more of this puppies, good luck with the hunt guys.

Hi Jewel, I had the same problem when I first hooked mine up, I second Bwhite on checking the flip switch in the back and also on the tape loop,make sure the switch in the front for it is flipped towards you, because if it's engaged no sound will come out.
Another thing, when I first hooked mine up I also used one of the inputs to act a theater pass thru from the HT processor and it initially worked but after I turned it of and on again after a few hours no sound comes out on my two front speakers. So I disconnected the hometheater pass thru and hooked the amp directly to my HT processor diconnecting all the line to the Chardonay and it works fine. When I put the Chardonay back online with the theater pass thru it works again initially then it will not again after I turned it off. The only thing I can think of after that is, the Chardonay is very sensitive to other electronics hooked up to it. Try and keep it simple as much as you can.
I'll email you my phone number, call me at home, I will be up late.

Come to think of it "Preamp deal of the Century" is really a very fitting description of the Supratek preamp. For the money I spent and the time invested waiting for it, plus the little quirks here and there, now that I had my preamp almost a month I can say that it is very much worth it.I absolutely love my Chardonay, the best I heard to date.

A couple of mods that I did on my Supratek Chardonay, courtesy of Bwhite's idea on how to reduce the vibration on your Supratek pre.

I posted pictures of it here with the Dynamat extreme on the inside of the pre.

The other one is the addition of the BDR cones and BDR "those things" I believe is what it's called. Here's a picture of it.

Here's a picture of my Chardonay after all this.

Thanks to Bwhite, now my unit sounds a lot more quiet and coherent.

Hi Bwhite, I had all BDR III cones sitting on BDR"those things IV's" on the Chardonay. You're right to much III's sounds a little too blurry in the upper mids,using a combination seems to even them out a bit but not enough. Just now I substituted DH squares in place of "those things III's" and I think this combo returned the PRAT that seems out of control on all BDR III combo.

With the power supply I'm using Golden Sound jumbo cones, I have not really experimented on footers on it yet.

It's interesting what you did on the two domes, I have not decided on what to placed on them yet, did you use some sort of plastic bag when you put the sand on the two domes?

Hi Betcha,I am using my Chardonay with a Plinius SA-250 MK IV right now and it's sounds great. I have to admit I was a bit sceptical initially because of the input/output impedance factor, but it turns out to be a great match. The Plinius has a 47k Ohms input impedance and the Chardonay has an output adjustment with it's balanced and single ended output. It took me a couple of days to find the right setting and once I did it was simply magical.

Well before the Syrah and the Plinius I used to have a Sonic Frontiers Line 2SE and a Krell FPB 200. I sold both of them when my Chardonay arrived. Comparing the two preamps was a little hard since both preamps were used on different amplifiers, given I was able to used the Chardonay with the Krell for a few days, but the Chardonay was not really broken in at the time. Anyway what I can tell you is the difference between the two combinations.

The SF and Krell were great and I've enjoyed it for almost a couple of years, but the Supratek and Plinius are a few notches higher IMO, more air and life are the words that come to mind.

I'm listening to it as I type this and I have a big smile on my face (Patricia Barber "NIghtclub"on the EMC 1).

My Supratek Chardonay is fitted with a balanced output and it works just fine, it even came with an output level adjustment knob so I was able to fine tune it with the input of my amp. The output level works on both single ended and balanced output.

Tok20000
I really don't know if what Mick used was a potentiometer or not, but if I'm not mistaken all of the Supratek preamps has an output level adjustment in one form or another.It's just that on mine Mick incorporated it on both RCA and XLR outputs.
If your asking why would I want something added inline that could potentially degrade the sound, of course not. As far as I know my preamp sounds great as it totally beat out my Sonic Frontiers Line 2 SE and all my other preamps I had before it.

Slowhand, let us know what you think of the Hal-O-Tube dampers,I'm thinking about ordering some myself.

Hi Theresa, I would say it is a worthy investment, point being is you probably will not upgrade your preamp for a long long time, like most of us in this thread. I have the Chardonay myself and if your willing to deal with the waiting and the little quirks here and there you will be rewarded.
Until now my Chardonay somehow never ceases to amaze me everytime I listen to it.

Slowhand, thanks again for the tip on the HAL-O tube dampers, my order arrived earlier today and it really works on the 6SN7s. In my opinion it is a "must have" for all Supratek preamps which are proned to tube noise. The improvement is audibly noticeable right away.
It is very reasonably priced also and they ship pretty darn fast, great service overall.