Preamp Deal of the Century

Bobheinatz, I don't think it matters what amp you use, tube or ss. The Supratek has more than enough gain and flexibility to be used with any amp. The amp/speaker match is more critical. The output impedance on the Syrah is 600 ohms.

I am using a Berning ZH270 with superb results but expect most of the Supratek owners will tell you the same.

Hello Gang. What happened to the tube thread on the supratek preamp? Did it get yanked?

I cannot find the Supratek Tube thread anywhere - I think it got yanked. Why? I dunno.

Hey Bwhite. To reiterate: Under no uncertain terms would the WE 350b's be justified for regulators in the supratek given their current market value.As mentioned earlier in the tube thread; The only reason I use them in mine is... I had a pair left over from an old pair of theatre amps that I sold years ago.Yes, I do like them as regulators in the supratek.. however the tungsol 5881's or any of the older 6L6 G versions are terrific.Their purpose in the supratek is to smooth the dc ripple of the rectifier and regulate a constant voltage to the gain stage.Early st-bottle shaped 6L6 G'versions can be found for peanuts just about anywhere. The guitar guy's tend to prefer the higher rated GB and GC versions of the 6L6 as the G rated versions cannot handle being ramped up into overdrive and tend to distort far to early for them.I would hazard to guess that well over 90% of the 6L6's were traditionally sold to the guitar amp market.

Ecclectique, I've tried some Sylvania 6L6 GWA (I think that was the designation) from the 40's. Smoked - gray glass. Anyhow.. they were recessed sounding, dull in the Supratek. In fact, I think they sounded a lot like the Sovetek EL34's the Cortese came with - not great.

I understand that the regulators aren't supposed to effect the sound much but I do hear major differences in the depth of the music with different tubes in that position. Oddly enough, I can hear bigger differences between regulator tubes than rectifier tubes in the Syrah, Chardonnay and Cortese.

The metal 6L6 RCA's had a tremendously wide soundstage yet the music was almost flat sounding - not dull or lifeless - just not deep or 3 dimensional when compared to the TS 5881's in my system.

I'm still searching for a pair of Sylvania 5932's with the dual black plates, as well as some early GEC KT66 to try. If those don't cut it, I'll most likely stick with the 5881's.

On a side note, I got some Mullard ECC32/CV181's to replace my Ken Rads. Neat tubes. I know.. I know... they AREN'T 6SN7's... Oddly enough, they work great in my Cortese but didn't work in a friends Syrah. In the Syrah, the remote volume control stopped working and the gain/dynamics went to about 20% of normal. That's weird because they function perfectly in the Cortese.