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Supratek Owners Thread

Greetings All - 
It appears that the 26-million-plus view, multi-decade "Preamp Deal of the Century" Supratek thread has been removed. I'm not sure why, but suppose there must be a reasonable explanation.
In any case, on that thread I recently asked whether there might be interest in a "Supratek owners thread" and received some interest. 
The purpose of this thread is for Supratek owners to share the details of their system, ask questions, share information about any tube-rolling they have done, and so forth.
I'll kick us off here with a few details about my system -
ancient Linn LP12 with Ittok arm, Dynavector 17D3 cartridge into Cortese LCR phono stage
Power amp is a fully serviced Innersound Electrostatic amplifier
Quad ESL63 speakers (not USA monitors) or JBL 4430 studio monitors
Digital sources are immature and evolving - ancient Fostex CR300 cd player/burner
DacMagic 100 DAC
Nordost Blue Heaven 75ohm interconnect
Due to the fairly long lengths of speaker wire required in the new listening room, speaker wire is Belden 12 gauge wire designed for low-voltage outdoor lighting systems. 
Next steps - dedicated circuit, new power cords, new interconnects, new wires.
128x128markusthenaimnut
nicks25
474 posts
 
This preamp is sublime.  Much more meat on the bones.

I replaced a Benchmark DAC 3 HGC that I was using for both preamp and DAC duties with a Chardonnay and a Denafrips ARES II.  Did not realize how clinical the Benchmark sounded before installing the Chardonnay.

Sounds fantastic with the stock tubes Mick provided.  The 6SN7s are Electro-Harmonix tubes.  
markusthenaimnut's avatar
markusthenaimnut OP
354 posts
 
I know, right?

Mick’s preamps just sound like music. Everything else, all the other distractions of "what about this" or "maybe a little more of this" or... whatever. They just let the beauty of the music flow through. So all you’re left with is beauty.

I love my Cortese and can't imagine my system without it.
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
469 posts
 
Goldilocks preamp to me. I have a lot invested in my system. The Chardonnay brought it all together. Rich timbre, meat on the bones, great bass. 
Post removed 
cal3713's avatar
cal3713
1,421 posts
 
Congrats @tvad, looking forward to hearing the reports.

I just ordered a custom dht linestage from Radu Torta (shiny eyes/simplepleasuretubeamps) based on the eml 20a mesh tube and this circuit... https://www.bartola.co.uk/valves/2018/03/25/eml-20a-dht-preamp/.

Excited to try a dht after reading about their beautiful tonality for many years. Hope you love yours...
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