Supratek Owners Thread


Greetings All - 
It appears that the 26-million-plus view, multi-decade "Preamp Deal of the Century" Supratek thread has been removed. I'm not sure why, but suppose there must be a reasonable explanation.
In any case, on that thread I recently asked whether there might be interest in a "Supratek owners thread" and received some interest. 
The purpose of this thread is for Supratek owners to share the details of their system, ask questions, share information about any tube-rolling they have done, and so forth.
I'll kick us off here with a few details about my system -
ancient Linn LP12 with Ittok arm, Dynavector 17D3 cartridge into Cortese LCR phono stage
Power amp is a fully serviced Innersound Electrostatic amplifier
Quad ESL63 speakers (not USA monitors) or JBL 4430 studio monitors
Digital sources are immature and evolving - ancient Fostex CR300 cd player/burner
DacMagic 100 DAC
Nordost Blue Heaven 75ohm interconnect
Due to the fairly long lengths of speaker wire required in the new listening room, speaker wire is Belden 12 gauge wire designed for low-voltage outdoor lighting systems. 
Next steps - dedicated circuit, new power cords, new interconnects, new wires.
128x128markusthenaimnut

@gryphongryph    Contact Mick and get my contact info.  I'd like to discuss your issue a little more but feel like we should take the convo off line from this thread.

@jslateiv thanks. I can definitely work with that. One more question. Is the XLR input truly balanced or a "convenience" connection.

Thanks,

aldnorab

The XLR in is transformer based so yes, it is a true balanced input converted by transformer to single-ended for the circuit.    The circuit itself (gain stages) are not balanced.   The output is transformer based as well and able to truly balance the signal or send out via single ended..

@jslateiv thanks for the info. It was exactly what I was hoping for. Just have to decide between Chardonnay and Cabernet. 

Thanks,

aldnorab

@aldnorab 

The Chardonnay is a more "classic/romantic" tube sound while the Cabernet is more neutral to my ears.  Your Sachs, which I also still have sitting around, is somewhere in the middle but closer to the Cabernet.  Either of the Supratek's are easier to match with amps due to the gain adjustments as opposed to the Sachs' fixed 18db gain.