Preamp Deal of the Century

Jay461,
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Regarding 6sn7 tube choices: For me, in my system, The Tungsol Black Glass Round Plate NOS are the best by a wide margin.
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The Tungsol’s are hard to find but well worth the effort/money.
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Try Bob Malecki at www.tubeseller.com or email him directly at tubeseller.com - best to email him and tell you what you are looking for. He specializes only in 6SN7's. He is not cheap, but quite honest and all of the tubes I have gotten from him have been excellent quality.
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You can email him and if he does not have a tube in stock he will contact you when he finds a pair matching what you want.
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Also try Brendan Biever at www.tubeworld.com or email him at tekman@tubeworld.com. Great inventory of all types of tubes - expensive, but honest and great quality tubes.
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I think you are better off paying a bit more on the expensive tubes from a reputable dealer who will stand behind his products.
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Good luck - you are going to have some fun.
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I agree with Cello. The Tung Sol Black Glass round plates do magic in my Syrah that no other tubes do. My other tubes of choice are GEC KT66's and Rogers 6f6g's in the regulator (I have been rotating them), and Phillips miniwatt 5ar4 in the rectifer position.

Sorry, I meant to say Phillips miniwatt GZ34 in the rectifier position. Cello, what tubes do you recommend for the phono stage of the Cortese. I believe mine will have 6922's.

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Slowhand,
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I bought a bunch of different 6922's for my phono stage and I am just getting started with the first pair. I got slightly sidetracked by a few Hurricanes that rolled through followed by a bunch of traveling.
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I have some Amperex gold pins, Telefunkens and a few others. All were highly recommended and quite expensive. I have it in my plans to start rolling them soon, but it will take a while. They are all NOS, so I will have to break them all in before I can do any worthwhile comparisons.
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I will post my reactions once I get to the point where I can do some fair comparisons.
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I only hope I will not bore you guys to death, but here it goes.
Long time ago while living in Poland I used to have ProAc Studio 100 with Electrocompaniet ECI-2 and Arcam 6 player. I know nothing fancy, but sound for me was excellent, bass was not low but was fast tuneful, I had fast transients, nice micro and macro dynamic. Music simply was alive. I have moved to „apartments” north from Phila (I still did not figured out why they are called this way, apartment in Europe means luxury flat not lousy barn from paper..., how true apartments are called – super apartments squared ?). Now I could afford bigger stereo so I have bought Thiel 3.6 and MF A300 (I’m using the some player). I was expecting better sound. But it was not the case, voices were dead, transients from big Thiels was nonexistent, dynamic in micro and macro scale was nonexistent. How so big speakers could sound so anemic, lifeless ? I just could not understand it because I had audition small Thiels 0,5 while in Poland and they sounded really good to me, they was to expensive to me though ($2000), I have bought Thiel 3.6 for $1800 here :) (Wadia cost 13k$ in Poland and there is no second market for it, AudioAreo Capitole new cost about 7k$). So problem must be somewhere else. After a while I have figure out that paper walls and power mains and L shaped living room with kitchen are to blame. So I figured out I will have to recompense it by buying much better equipment. I changed source from SACD SONY (9000ES) what a downgrade it was - wrong path – think again - this time harder. Next I tried to replace MF A300, so I bought Clayton M100. A little better, stronger bass more liquid sound but still not there. And there is „deal of the century thread”. I did not believed that preamp would matter that much, but it was my last resort, what I got to lose (nothing - no maybe 3k$). After half year of waiting I got it. I was afraid to turn it on to not to be disappointed again. But I have gather my courage and:
first impression with stock tubes was very very positive, I finally disconnected my MF A300 (was using it as pre with Clayton), there was music again, nice rich vocals, liquid sound, even stronger bass, but the most important - sound was alive again like it was years ago. I was really moved. Even BMG CD’s are now listenable. So even lousy power mains in my „apartment” (when my wife is ironing bulbs are blinking like Christmas tree) were not able to kill Supratek spirit that good it is. How preamp could make such difference (cdp, power amp could not do it) I do not know. I just cannot imagine and wait when some day I will be back to my 1.5 feet wide brick walls in Poland and will connect it to decent power mines. It could be really something. But for know this is my first not SS component. I’m trying to improve it by tubes rolling. So far I have changed to Ken Rod Black Glass VT231 and Philips Miniwatt, there is a difference vs. stock tubes but it is really small, maybe will be bigger after cdp upgrade, and I’m sure will be huge after barn to true apartment upgrade :) so there is a lot for me to look forward.