Preamp Deal of the Century

Opus88,
Glad to hear from you, and that you are happy with your current preamp. I moved on, as well, with no regrets, just $2000 lighter, and a little bit wiser.

Plutos - I tried the Promitheus TVC. Super clean, nuanced sound with a tube like warmth to it. I enjoyed it, but it did not have the dynamics and openness of active preamps. Though I'd bet it was one of the most transparent preamps available for the price. Promitheus has a preamp with an active tube stage in it that probably does the dynamic thing also (haven't heard it). Back to Supratek. One of the best preamps I have owned, and I have been through many. No glare on my system, running a Pass Labs X-150 Eminent Technology speakers, a ESound CD player. I am loving the sound. I have the Tungsol tubes as well as other NOS tubes. I actually like the stock 6SN7s on it best. I trust my ears. Not to boast, but I play piano professionally (1 of my professions - need to do other things to get by in the music business :) Jazz is my love. I know what live music is suppose to sounds like (amplified and unamplified) and attend acoustic concerts- yes classical music. Lang Lang is one of my favorite young pianist) I went through about 5-6 preamps before this one to get that "you are there sound". Those that own one should be proud. Those that have purchased others and have moved on, great. This is a hobby! You have to trust your own ears. Doesn't make the Supratek a bad preamp.
Thanks for listening. On a side not, please support your local musicians. You are missing out on some great talent, even if the sound isn't perfect and the acoustics stink. I don't know how many times I have invited audiophile friends out to listen to some great jazz, and they would rather sit in front of their systems at home - all the time. To bad - nothing like the real thing baby! Sorry going off on another topic. Selah!

Jeffjazz - thanks for your answer. Its most valuable for me because believe it or not but I also use Pass X-150 as power amp. Speakers are Focal 926 and have owned several digital sources lately but Marantz SA-1 is my favorite till now. It seems that I need to try Supratek.
Also wanted to ask what Supratek pre are you using?

Chardonney. The "low end" of Supratek. I have had more expensive preamps, and like it better. Mates great with the Pass amp because you can adjust the gain which is rare on a preamp. No impedance problems either. - Jeff

I had my Cortese for sale and just cancelled the ad. I can't bring myself to give it up. I really enjoy the dynamics and transparency of the Cortese. My Audio Aero Capitole AI, which I had connected directly to my amp, sounded smeared without the benefit of the Cortese. The Cortese made everything sound right to my ears. For the record, mine has operated flawlessly for 2 years, other than tube issues, and Mick has been very responsive to my emails, even recently. Horses for courses, I guess, but I really like what I have. For what it's worth, and I know some of you don't give a rat's ass: In my limited experience, I have also owned 2 other "Class A" preamps with built in phono stages and 1 "Class A" stand alone phono stage. As a caveat, these were all in the lower price range of "Class A" components. That said, the Cortese is much superior to any of those other pieces that I had in my system. But then again, I can't say that what I like is necessarily what someone else would like. Horses for courses.