Supratek Owners Thread

Hi All,

I am one of the very satisfied owners of the new Grange Signature preamp from Mick.  I received mine on September 16th after approximately a 6 month wait.  I was originally going to go with the Cortese LCR but after Mick told me the Grange was coming back and the Signature was the best preamp he'd ever designed, I put my deposit down despite the six month wait he quoted.  That was at the end of February and he told me at that time, I was the sixth order placed for a Signature.

Mick was pretty accurate with his delivery estimate as it did take just over six months to receive it but the wait was worth it.  I was looking for a full function preamp with an outstanding phono section to replace my Coincident Statement Phono preamp (in itself a very good phono preamp), and was considering the usual suspects of VAC and VTL on the used market.  But after reading the many glowing reviews of the Suprateks, I decided to buy new instead. 

My decision was rewarded as the Signature's phono section with the LCR circuit and Lundahl inductors was a major improvement over the CSPP.  I was actually shocked how good it was and really couldn't imagine how much better a phono stage could get without spending over $20K. Tremendous imaging and detail that was never revealed with the Coincident.  It is a great match for my Transfiguration Proteus LOMC and has no problem driving my notoriously low input impedance Pass XA100.5's with the adjustable gain, something the Coincident struggled with.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with the purchase and would highly recommend the Grange Signature as one the the best preamps on the market with a world class phono section.  For the price, I don't think it can be beat.  

Well, I finally did it, I knew I would. I can switch between 6sn7 and 12sn7 on my Cabernet and I zapped some 6v tubes with 12v. Just wish it wasn’t my round plate Ken Rad 6f8g tubes! I left them on for several minutes like that before realizing what I had done. They are playing OK now but I assume I have taken years off of their life. SOB. Incidentally, what do you think would happen if I did the opposite? I’m assuming nothing but I don’t want to experiment  

What would actually happen if I put a tube that is pin compatible with the 6sn7 but with very different characteristics into my Cabernet? Something like a 6sl7 or a 2c50. I only worry about damaging the preamp, don’t want to burn anything up. 

@hawkrising said:

I ordered a Cabernet 6SN7 a couple of weeks ago. Expecting a three-month wait. Came here to learn more about this preamp. Looking forward to receiving it.  

I have come to love mine. I will say my initial impression was an overwhelmingly negative one. My DAC pushes out 4v over the balanced connection and that apparently overloads the input to the Cabernet. It made a terrible, compressed sound. Since that was my initial impression it really soured me on the device. I eventually figured that out and switched over to a single ended input which has the regular 2v output and things have been fine. 

The other thing I hated was that, compared to the passive section on my Ferya+, I could not get decent bass with the Cabernet in my system. No matter what tubes I tried the bass was just disappointing. running El38 tubes in my amp were especially impressive with the passive amp and just sounded lifeless with the Cabernet in the system. I'm not usually a big believer in burn in but it is the only explanation I can think of for the turnaround I heard. I now get the big, lush sound I was looking for along with solid bass. 

Although curiously I still can't get decent sound using the EL38 output tubes in my amp if I use the Cabernet. The clarity and frequency range I get from them with the passive is impressive. It all seems to go away when I use the Cabernet. Luckily I can use a wide variety of output tubes with my amp so I have several other combos that sound amazing. Makes me worry though if and when I get a more conventional amp that can only use a single kind of output tube. Anybody have any idea why the Cabernet might have such a bad impact with a specific amp output tube?

Hmmm….maybe the maker would have an idea. Why not contact Supratek?

Looking for others’ thoughts. I’m now in a position to upgrade from the Chardonnay, so a couple of days ago I asked Mick what would an "all stops out" single 6SN7 Cabernet look like. He responded that "all out" would be the Grange Signature circuit, but would need the 6J5 instead. It seems he could do it all in the Chardonnay’s main case, since the two extra power supply tubes showing in the the Cabernet photo are 6L6’s moved over for the DHT Cabernet, not the 6SN7 one.

I have some reading to do about the 6J5 (there's a long head-fi thread). My inclination: After going through lots of NOS 6SN7’s and 6F8G’s and equivalents, and lots of time and $$$, I find the Treasure Globe from Rachel of Premium Vacuum Tubes in Canada (from China) easily the best of the bunch for my tastes and hate to give them up, afraid I wouldn’t find anything as good among the 6J5’s. Another possibility that I tossed out to Mick is a Grange Signature w/o the phono section, but don’t know what tubes are involved in that beyond the 6J5, assuming he’d even do that.

Thoughts? Thanks,