Preamp Deal of the Century

Hi Ecclectique & Amandarae, thanks for your valuable input. I am going to get the Mullard CV4058 and try them out. My Chenin was stocked with RCA 6C4 and they are the only stock tubes remain on the unit. I have no idea of how the other 6C4 sounds so I am going to give a try. Frankly speaking how big is the difference betweem the 6C4 model and the later one using 6J6?

Thanks again!

Hi Gang. Ethifi.... congrats sir and let the chardonnay run in for a good couple of hundred hours before tube rolling. You will be impressed right out of the box. A couple of hundred hours of run in time allows the passive circuit parts,wire and the transformer windings to settle in. Amandadarae...a great system sir and I can see a lot of time and thought went into putting it together... always love to see another great vinyl rig too. After reading about your previous wright preamp I can almost hear the musical "voice" of your system....you have good ears sir. Regarding the GE 6c4...Any of other GE 6c4 versions were just awful except for the 80's vintage versions. I believe Conrad Johnson still have select stock of these in inventory. I have to say I was not too impressed with the tone of the Tung sol's[hard treble range] and never really tried the triple mica Raytheon as the mullard m8080 won hands down. Furthermore.... The circuits I was playing with [organ amps and guitar amps] could never be considered high resolution amplifying devices like that found in a good phono stage. I did dig out my previous notes I had made on this tube. I had spent some time voicing a friend's Conrad Johnson PV 14 back in the early 90's and came to the same conclusion.... The mullard m8080 wins hands down.I have kept records that date back to the early 70's regarding the tubes used for voicing my own equipment as well as the stuff I've repaired or modified. I am not surprised with your choice of the telefunken e88cc in the phono stage. No doubt you have had previous experience with this tube type.The telefunken and the seimen cca are the very best of that family and by a wide margin I might add. If that particular tube does not seem that critical in the supratek's phono stage [as indicated in your last post] others here that do not wish to pay the insane price's those tubes currently command... may want to try the nos russian military tube in it's place. The 6n23ev is a terrific tube for use in a phono stage. It is dead quiet, accurate, great bass resolution, extremely well balanced top to bottom and consistently has the tightest matched triode sections of any manufactured brand of this family of tube. "Note"... It is not to be confused with the icy glare of the current commercial Sovtec 6dj8/6922 now being used in just about every piece of modern amplifiacation. The 6n23ev's were developed strictly for the russian military and were not even known to exist until the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Big Red Machine. There are surplus stock of this tube floating around.They are very inexpensive relative to most nos examples. Search them out, you will be impressed.

Ecclectique,
You have said that Cary 805c and Supartek are "is a marriage made in heaven". But there is one problem for me, Cary is only 50W, and in the future I'm going to have big room (>400sq feet) and I like listen to big orchestras on decent level. My speakers are power hungry inefficient Thiels 3.6. I'm afraid that even strong tube watts in amount of 50 will not suffice. And I have heard Manley a few times I only so far have liked better them Manley expensive behind my reach electronics (like VAC or LAMM). And it is 250W at the some price, yes I know it is not SET but some people claims that for big music SET is not the best choice ...
What do you think ?

Ecclectique,

Thanks for the advice and the compliment. Yep! it seems that the GE's that I have are the crappy ones.

I will look for the 6n23ev tubes. Hopefully I can experience their sonic character on the Supratek.

Yes, I agree that the Mullard 8080 is a cut above the other 6c4's I tried. Although my experience is that they have to be run for sometime before they show their true colors. At first when I got them, my impression was that they are quiet but the sonics are about average. After sometime (50 hours or so)playing music with them, they finally arrived! Piano and horns becomes full and with just the right extension, at least for me.

Thanks again!

Sorlowski.A tall order indeed,although that pairing would definately not make good match with your thiels. I would seek out a high powered ss amp with big current delivery, preferrably on the warmish side of the fence. The big VTL's or perhaps a few other high powered tube amps may possibly be up to the task however, One should always try them first to be certain. best of luck.