Preamp Deal of the Century

Hi Gang. Ongaku, thanks for the post. Sandro, congrats on your new supratek and I am sure you will enjoy the ride. EThifi, Have you spent much seat time with the preamp in the low gain setting? If it is loud at 9 oclock on the volume control, it leaves you with a very small window for adjusting the proper gain variations of many recordings...... WCmustang....While neither my syrah nor the cortese use the ecc88 in the phono stage, I do have an ARC sp-10 and the Klimo merlin in others systems. Both employ the ecc88/6dj8/69922 family of tubes and are very fine sounding high end preamps. I have also owned as well as repaired and modified many other preamps that have employed that family of tubes. There are some great ones, some good ones and a lot of mediocre tubes in that family. Many of the nos ecc88 family of tubes have a tendency to be somewhat microphonic and can also be noisey as well. The crop of currently manufactured tubes..... while most are quiet and void of microphonics,in my honest opinion; none are fit for use in any high resolution phono circuit and to my ears "just won't make music". The pre 1970's tubes from amperex, siemens,telefunken,mullard,valvo etc are light years better than post mid 70's and 80's examples,particulary the siemens made tubes. Further more:There are a ton of re-labelled examples floating around and have been for years.In my experience, the only modern tube of any consequence is the military version of the Soviet 6n23n or 6n23ev,infact... these are the quietest tubes in the family with the tightest triode sections as well.The post 1980 phillips ecg versions are hideous sounding. The 60's version white labell Holland made Amperex [d getter versions] are terrific as well as the US amperex versions. The pre-70's Siemens e88cc's were my favs in the Sp-10 and the klimo and preferred over the Telelies and the mullards. Both versions of the legendary CCA's from either siemens or telefunken are as good as it gets in this tube family however the late 70's examples are nowhere close sonically to the earlier examples. The early Valvos [pre 70's again] red labells are great as well. One may also use the e188cc's or 7308's as subs and all of them will handle a higher voltage and are geniune 10,000 hour tubes. JPMS, Thanks for your perspective on the px-4/300b supratek options. The dilema for me is, which one to sell if I decide to go with the Grange. I am leaning more toward selling the Syrah as my cortese is considerably better sounding and far more flexible in my system. I much preferr the sound of the nos round plate 6j5's over any of the 6sn7's. There are also many more single triode substitutes for the 6j5 .... like the many vintages of the 6p5's, 6c5's,6ad5's,6ae5's,and the fabulous 7193. Due to no real commercial demand for single triode octal tubes [yet anyway]all these tubes are dirt cheap, very plentiful, and many sound better than the dual triode 6sn7. To be candid here: My apprehension stems from having my doubts about whether the px4/300b version will outperform my cortese with the above mentioned nos tubes.

Ecclectique - I don't have the grange. My cabernet doesn't use the px4 or 300b. But comparing the linestage section between the Mick's upper and mid-line preamps I am certain that the grange will easily best the cortese. Mick can easily put the 6j5 in place of the 6sn7 if that is what you prefer. Basically all the nos tubes you currently use for the cortese can also be used in the grange with the addition of the px4 or 300b.

I have spent some time with some very fine systems including one all-tube system with vinyl front-end and total system cost exceeding $200k USD. My humble system with a SS poweramp has more tone than any system that I have ever heard including the one I just mentioned. The cabernet is what puts me over the top.

Hi Jazzdude. Thank you for your prompt response. I have little doubt the line of the Grange will best the cortese with the same single triodes in it for line gain. But is the cost of going that route really justifiable? If I do order one it will definately be wired to accomodate a pair of single triode octals per channel as opposed to the dual triode 6sn7.I can always rewire the sockets to accomodate the 6sn7's anyway.The delema here is: My main rig is voiced primarily for vinyl playback as I rarely listen to digital in that system, thus my apprehension in regards to going to the grange. I would have to sell either the cortese or the syrah to do so. I am leaning toward selling the syrah at this point as I will move the cortese into my second system to replace the syrah if finances permit. My cortese is just incredible with the 7193 in it!!! however the influence of the line gain is negligable at best when using the phono stage of the cortese anyway... thus my anxiety here.Anybody in the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario with the grange or cabernet?

PS: Jpms. You are a true gentleman sir! I sincerely appreciated your email today, thanks again. cheers David

David:
[/Have you spent much seat time with the preamp in the low gain setting?]
Yes, I did but found that the sound was weaker, more backward and image lacked substance compared with the high gain setting. **sigh ** I wrote to Mick about it and he said it had to do with my power amp. I'm saving up for a Antique Sound Lab (either a Hurricane or AQ-1009) - heard them few weeks ago and fell in love with the live music they made!
Cheers Edmund