Preamp Deal of the Century

Tube rolling with the Supratek pres can be an expensive road to go down resulting in minor effect if any at all.I sold my phono grade black glass Tungsols 6sn7s when the going price of them reached $300,I more then doubled my money. The only select pairs of 6sn7s I have left in my stash are the formidable and attractive looking Sylvania metal base A and the W vintage. The best results were had with a $20.00 Bendix 6106 rectifier and apair of $8.00 Sylvania 6F6gs n.i.b. I have a dozen metal base rectifiers.Philips MiniWatt,BugalBoy, Mullard. N.O.S. select pairs of Genelex gray glass brown base KT-66. Select pairs of early vintage Telefunken,Seimens and Philips moving coil phono select.Right now in my phono stage Im using a $40.00 n.o.s. pair of PCC88 Telefunkens and a pair of R.C.A. 6c4s with excellant results. I gave all these mentioned above $$$ agood lengthy listen. The Bendix ,Sylvania and the $50 for a matched pair Sovtek Kt-66 have the best effect myself and others have found.....You really want to find out what your system can do? If you play vinyl, look into changing your tonearm wire to Nordost Valhalla and your interconnects to your phono stage with the Nordost new line. Far and away the best move you could make.And for a LOT LESS money then tube rolling with your Supratek pre......

Stiltskin,
You've done a lot of tube rolling with your Chenin,
but I would ask you the original question again- regarding midrange glare, that Opus alluded to in his post, and I also mentioned couple of posts back ( I don't think he and myself are smoking the same stuff).
Being through many combinations of stock and NOS tubes, have you ever heard that glare??? (I'd be surprised if you didn't),
and what in you experience is the combination of rectifier, regulators and signal tubes, that gave your the most relaxing and musical quality sound.
As I mentioned in my post, I've only tried Black Glass KenRads and Grey Glass RCA VT-231, and now looking for
rectifier and regulators, that would give me that "relaxed,
musical and non- fatiguing quality".
I've been looking at Philips Miniwatt (Mullard metal base are hideously expensive, and hard to get), and maybe Sovtek or Chinese KT-66.
Appreciate your expertise greatly.

Hey Stiltskin. Great post. And you have to love the return on your investment on the tung-sol rounds.

Hi Maril555, I'm no expert in this area, I stumbled through this hobby on and off for 30 years....I have not experienced an annoying glare in the midrange while tube rolling.Except while my new tonearm wire was burning in. I wish I had it cooked.....My focus while checking out vintage tubes was the rectifier and the regulators in my Chenin.I found the Bendix rectifier in combination with apair of 6f6gs to add meat to the bone from the lower midrange on down.The same effect can be found with a new pair of Sovtek KT-66s and the Bendix. In the line stage area. It is a waste to spend hundreds on a select pair of 6SN7s Im using a used pair of R.C.A. GTs clear glass. I have many more 6SN7s on hand that I could use..... Going back to the rectifier and regulators.I took Ecclectique knowledgable and expert advise in this area. I believe Ecclectique at the time had a Syrah model. It could very well be that this model of preamp responds to vintage tubes more so then the newer models.I am thrilled that my Chenin does not.

Could it be that Marill555 and I are the only Supratek owners facing the glare issue ? Probably not. Maybe it's all like the kind of experience I had a number of years back, when I owned Apogee Diva speakers. While they did things (in a positive sense) that I had never heard before from any other speaker, they had---you guessed it--an annoying upper midrange glare, no matter what I changed, component wise, around them. When I mentioned this to Apogee's creator, Jason Bloom, he denied there was any glare, and virtually said I was nuts. Undaunted, I wrote a letter to the editors at Stereophile, asking the same question, while acknowledging Jason Bloom's denial. The answer that appeared in print affirmed my impression. Maybe some hear the glare in their preamp, and maybe some do not. Frankly, I'm somewhat in agreement with Stiltskin's remarks about tube rolling and its costliness, and I'm ready to try some other non-tube possible solutions. At the same time, based on what I've heard using the stock complement of tubes (for 200 hours) that the Cortese came with, I cannot agree with the assertions of some other Cortese owners on Audiogon who claim that the stock tubes in the preamp offer the best sound. Again, it's possible that either they don't have, hear or recognize the glare that, at least, Marill555 and I are hearing. I still feel the Cortese is a superb unit, and will continue my search for that more unforced kind of sound Marill555 refers to. I welcome any other observations and comments from others who may be experiencing the same issue, and who may have found a positive way or ways to deal with it. Of course, there's also the possibility of bringing this up with Mick, but at this time, I'd rather try to deal with this matter on my own and not bug him. I have the feeling he's had his hands more than full with Supratek owners and would be owners.