Thoughts on the Supratek Chardonnay

Arkio, I agree, I think it is a bargain at $3000 compared to others I've heard.

I think Bwhite's assessment is right on the money. Once you find a combination of tubes that suits your system it is a piece you can easily live with. Veiled is way too strong a word to describe it, but it tends to go in that direction.

Tbg - I thought your post was okay. You are correct, early versions of the Supratek had issues - particularly cold solder joints. My first and second Chardonnay's came damaged (in shipping) from the factory. Piano Black with a nice huge scratch. Sweet! Lots of weird buzzing, humming issues. Gain was weird - high gain was too high and low gain was too low. I think Mick has done a fantastic job of improving on his manufacturing techniques (care and precision) and it shows in the reliability of the current product line.

Now... we only need to improve transparency.

Bwhite,

As you and I discussed, the stock volume pot is one of the problems with transparency in the Chardonnay. BTW, what does the Cortese use for volume control?

I don't know why Mick insist on using the stock Alps pot (other than cost). The DACT is such an improvement it is silly.

I am considering upgrading to the Cabernet. If I do, I will insist on a DACT volume control. (Maybe the new digital volume control instead....?)

I think the Cortese uses the Alps too. Not only is the potentiometer an issue but the selector switch is too. All signal runs through that knob followed by a trip through the mute switch. Seems to me the pot, knob and switch are three great places to improve transparency. Also.. check the RCA connectors they're super cheap. Mine broke on my Chardonnay.

Mick seems open to new ideas, he just takes a while to accept them. At one point, he didn't like parafeed designs (at about the time Norm had his Syrah modified by John Tucker) - now all the Supratek's are parafeed.

My Chardonnay was the first with HT bypass and remote. The thing was like some bizarre Frankenstein which didn't work too well but... Mick evolved and incorporated the features into the design... and did it pretty well I might add. Now those features are available on every Supratek.

Ultimately the Supratek is limited mostly by the size of its chassis - there are a great number of refinements and improvements which could be accomplished if the chassis were larger. I don't know if the DACT would fit in my Cortese or even a Syrah - the phono sections take up a lot of space.

Wow, you guys jumped right in on things here. I've learned some new things and still look to upgrade beyond the ARC SP16L. With keeping in the price of the Chardonnay, is there better tube preamps out there for the best combination of soundstaging, dynamics, and adaptablility with other gear? The Chardonnay looks so nice though....Lets keep the thread going.