Supratek Owners Thread

Anyone take delivery of a Supratek recently?  

Originally ordered a dark brown wood/chrome Chardonnay and ended up upgrading to a Cabernet 6SN7 since Mick had one available to ship sooner.  Might have been a cancellation…don’t know.  Mick mentioned he was having a very difficult time getting new tubes and said he was sending quality NOS tubes from his stash.  I received Radiotron (RCA Australia made 50’s-60’s) 6SN7’s, Russian made 6N3C’s 90’s?, Russian 5U4C 90’s for my set of tubes.  Curious to hear what tube set any of you received?
Also, would like to hear from any Cab 6SN7 owners on what tubes you are using or prefer.  Thanks

@tksteingraber 

The Russian military tubes are pretty standard for him when he can get them but the NOS Radiotron's are an upgrade from the normal.  The 6SN7's should be fine as are the the Russian 6L6's.  I would look for a NOS rectifier though as the first swap.  They are getting more and more expensive but a good one should last you many years. 

@jackd Thanks for the input.  What tubes are you using?  Nice to hear what others are doing. I have a selection of NOS 6l6’s and 6sn7’s that I can play around with.  What rectifier do you like or recommend? I have some 5u4g’s are they compatible 5ar4 sub?  Much appreciated.

@tksteingraber 

I have both a Chardonnay and a Cabernet in two different systems and use Blackburn Mullard 5AR4's in both mainly due to the slow start-up feature.  Have used all of the other compatible 5 volt variables but always end up back with the 5AR4's.  As I leave my SS amps on all the time I don't get the noise at start-up and especially turn off with the 5AR4's I get with the other variants.  My next favorite of the rectifiers are the RCA 5AS4's a 5U4 variant.  In both preamps I am using the 6L6 tubes Mick supplied as I tried other modern ones and didn't hear a difference.  Never had a reason to own NOS samples.  Am using RCA 6SN7 GT's currently in both units but in the past have had good luck with Hytron 6SN7 GT's and Raytheon VT-231's. I own several NOS pair but never saw or heard the fascination with 5692's. I own two pair of 1943 Sylvania GT's that I bought NIB almost 25 years ago that on occasion I will put in one pair in one of them just to see if they can stay put but it hasn't happened yet. After almost four years of rolling 6SN7's in the two preamps I'm kind of settled in for a while with what's in them. 

@jackd Great info exactly what I was looking for.  Much appreciated.