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
Hey, fellow Supratek owners. Got a request for you, and I think it’s relevant for those who might be considering Supratek. Here’s the ask: Please share what other preamps you owned or considered when choosing Supratek.
My only personal comparison was a Naim NAC 82 with hicap powersupply. The Supratek taught me the meaning of the phrase "not even in the same league". In many decades past I'd heard a Covergent Audio Technologies preamp (it was pretty good) and an Emmanual Go First Sound (It was awesome). When I chose Supratek I considered First Sound and the Don Sachs. I wasn't aware of numerous other boutique builders at the time. I wasn't crazy about the looks of the Supratek, but  have grown to love it and now think that exposed tubes are just about the coolest thing to look at in my music room.
A couple of practical features I really appreciated on the Supratek were the large number of inputs and, it turns out, the ability to connect up to three different power amps. Never would have thought I'd need that, but I'm now running a solid state from one output for my quads and a 300B from another output for my 93dB efficient JBLs. Turns out this is a capability I use all the time.
I’m not asking you to go into a detailed comparison (though that would be cool if you wanted to). I’m just requesting you to say what you upgraded from or auditioned against or whatever. BTW, this is not intended as an opportunity to "slam" anybody else’s equipment. Just a place to try to collect and document people’s experience.
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Markus I believe you when you are saying not intending to slam anybody else but the result will be that, in fact the result might even be slam the Supra, I have experience with different pre’s and everyone is different for good and bad and it wouldn’t be fair to compare these, specially on a Supra thread, I know is your thread but I am going to pass and I think others should too.
I love my Supra, does bass extremely well (like a SS), the cheap stock Russian EH tubes sound incredible (this have put in perspective my opinion about rolling tubes, it is not the tubes so much but the designers purpose with it), my wife likes the chrome and the wood matches her furniture perfectly (now that’s a big plus as she gets off my back, she asked me and I had to invent a story the preamp someone sent it to me to tune it, she doesn't know I purchased it), it is very musical and enjoyable, you have dual sections (mine is the cab dual) today I tested levels SPL, Mick matched the DHT and 6SN7 sections perfectly.

Like everything in life the Supra has tiny little shortcomings when compared to other preamps, but that doesn’t mean is not a great preamp,
Got my Cabernet last week, beautiful sounding even before burned in, one bummer is that only the 300B has the output gain adjustment, also the balance knob is very mild in the adjustment, something Mick says is done for sound quality.
The construction is beautifully made, got it with heat sinks, the domes will arrive later, the heat sinks looks good on the amp, will see what I will prefer when the domes arrive.
Only disappointment is the remote, very cheap plastic Phillips remote, really would appreciated Mick making a nice wood one, think he would sell a lot of them.
The sound is very satisfying and will only get better as it gets more hours, not thinking about tube rolling as of now, want to get use to it first before making any decision.

About the looks, off course people have different taste, but I think it looks gorgeous, in my opinion it looks better in life than in pictures.
Hopefully it will stay with me forever as I feel it is a end destination pre amp.
@gryphongryph 

Does your cabernet also have a 6sn7 option? If so do you know what the fixed gain is for it?