Preamp Deal of the Century

Jtgofish,

LOL.

I'm not asking anyone to believe it. Just relating my experience.

If you have a Supratek, easy enough to experiment.

And I think my sonic memory is good enough to last about 5 minutes from one change of footing to the next. Chair in the exact same spot. Exact same music cuts that I have listened to a hundred times.

The difference has been rather significant. And if you know the chassis design of the Supratek, it makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

But I don't expect you to take my word for it. It's easy enough to try.

And believe me, I am not one that falls easily to Audio Nervosa. If I clearly hear a difference, I will say so. On the other hand, I don't try to kid myself either if it's not obvious in my system, no matter how much everyone else is raving about something, I trust my own ears.

As an example, I just auditioned the much hyped Synergistic Research Apex and Precision Reference ICs in my system. The Audio Metallurgy ICs that I have been using were better in every respect except the mid-bass and there it was still close. That's $6,000 ICs against $400 worth of ICs. I can easily afford the SR ICs and if they were better, even modestly so, I would purchase them. But they weren't in my system. Regardless of what the over-whelming consensus has been in the Synergistic thread.

I realize many guys from the Synergistic thread here will find it inconceivable that I found the AM cables better, but once again, that was my experience. I have auditioned a lot of gear in the last couple of years and I haven't made that many changes. I try very hard not to let myself be fooled by the hype of reviews or the popular opinions here that seem to often to be nothing more than hype or Audio Nervosa.

If someone constantly posts positive results about everything new that they audition, (and there are many here who do) that simply sends up a red flag to me. I find it laughable that every 3-6 months some here move on to new components or cables. To me, that's a sign of someone who easily falls prey to Audio Nervosa...and trust me, I ain't one of them.

Think about it, how often to you see guys post to a thread like the Synergistic thread that the "newest and latest and greatest" cable design is "jaw droppng". Well, search their posts and you will see a pattern that EVERYTHING they try turns out to be stunning. If it's a new component or cable, it always turns out to be better. And I believe that's simply nonsense.

So back to the topic at hand. If you have a Supratek, play around with it. It may or may not work in your system, but it is a rather cheap experiment. But more importantly, first examine the chassis of the Supratek and I think you may find rational reasons why the thin, poorly supported metal plate on the bottom of the chassis may be a terrible base to support the preamp to begin with. Simply tap the bottom plate and listen to it vibrate.

Agreed I was thinking of getting some marble cut or some corian. That's a little over the top though. I will purchase some speaker dampening material for the insides of the unit, and try my bike tube underneath
I really love my Supratek. Have had many preamp other than this one, and no one preamp is necessarily best, but this one does it for me. I hope the dampening deepens the soundstage, that is the only weakness (& it is very minor) that my Supratek has. Still sounds better in my system as a whole than any other preamp I have owned. Killer tone!

Jeff, you might try Lexan first. There are some high-end companies that make isolation products who use Lexan as their material of choice.

If you can't find it nearby, I will cut you a couple of 1/2" shelves to try under your Supratek. I have plenty to spare.

Fiddler,
I didn't believe my eyes, when I saw you using words "glare" and "Supratek" in the same sentence.
I thought you knew not to use "glare", speaking of Supratek.
I've learned my lesson awhile ago.
It's a miracle, Supratek watchdogs haven't awaken yet.

Jeffjazz and Fiddler,
Well I really have become a bit sceptical about these sorts of tweaks.
You can easily fool yourself into thinking these sorts of changes make a difference.The only way to be sure is to do an A/B comparison but even that is too subjective.
If you have to make physical changes which take more than about 20 seconds you cannot recall accurately the sound prior to the change.That is as long as our sonic memory lasts.
And as I said shifting your head position is likely to change what you hear so unless you have some sort of head clamp then you cannot asses changes properly either.

I own a Supratek Cabernet-the 300B version which I think was the pick of all of them-and I have heard them all.