Preamp Deal of the Century

Steve - I agree, good speaker are very important... Unfortunately they but are a real pain in the rear to buy & sell - so auditioning esoteric speakers in our homes, with our systems is very difficult compared to auditioning other components.

I've used Wilson Benesch speakers for a number of years and I've been quite happy with them. But! I am on my way to becoming a first time father so....I sold them and will be trying to build a system which is very low power with high efficiency single point speakers - in an effort to get great sound at lower volumes. The Single Ended / Single Point world is new to me and I'm still trying to determine what speakers to buy.. but they must work well with a 45 SET amp.

With all due respect, herein lies the problem that I first hinted at. Speakers from Paradigm with polypropylene cones and even the Wilson Benesch with its (slightly fuzzy)Scanspeak carbon cones are not the last word in resolution. The inner beauty and differentiation of low level detail and tonal textures of the Supratek Cortese or Cabernet will not necessarily show through with speakers such as these.

Its not until you enter the realm of electrostats, horns, Raven ribbons and Accutons that you will truly know what your Suprateks are capable of.

Brian, if you are down sizing to the world of Single Point Source drivers, give the eight inch Fostex FE206E a try. Its got an uneven response tilted towards the upper mids, but the overall sound is superb! Its highly efficient at 96dB/w/m, very coherent sounding with pin point sharp imaging and excellent treble response. You will need to build a sub-woofer to match though, to augment bass. The good news is that the Fostex is only $68USD ea. from Madisound, so you've got nothing to lose.

Regards,

Steve.

Stevem1960

I am using Mauhorn IV with Lowther EX2 drivers, driven by Cary 300B SET monos. REL Strata 5 for the lows . Point source & no-crossovers is truly something to hear. Love the combo with my Chardonay.

Bwhite, I wasn't "lead to believe that the Cortese was microphonic". It WAS microphonic. Tap the top plate and hear it ring like a chime! Thump the volume control and just listen to it reverberate through the room! Tizziness in the upper mids and highs at anything greater than moderate volume levels. The Cortese is a very good preamp, but dead silence is not one of its assets.

Curriemt, looks like what you experienced is accurately described as a microphonic Cortese. Not sure what vintage yours was but mine was built in late 2002. It was rock solid. Even heavy thumps on the chassis wouldn't cause any problems.. and that's saying something considering I was using tubes from 1940.

My previous Suprateks (Chardonnay/Syrah) had issues caused by just lightly touching the chassis. It made piano sounding noises.

FYI - You are correct, the Janus problems have been fixed - I believe current models have fewer tubes in the circuit and unfortunately don't sound quite as good as the older unreliable Janus.