Preamp better than Cortese?

In effect I have had two Syrahs. One was an early unit; I believe one of the first three in the U.S. The other was that unit modified by John Tucker of Exemplar Audio. The modification came first because of one channel of the Syrah failing. It would have cost me $350 to have Mick repair it. After repair John talked me into making it parafeed with a active load on the output tube and then into using the 6N1P rather than the 6SN7. The modification has since been done on three other Syrahs. They become more dynamic and much quieter.

I have since bought the full blown Exemplar preamp which includes no phono stage and has a fully SS power supply. It surpasses the modified Syrah. I then got the H-Cat. As I have said before, the H-Cat makes even the best tube preamps sound tube like without sounding SS itself. But the awesome aspect of the H-Cat is sound staging. It recreates an image that must be very much like the actual recording session. There were some early problems with it, but it has performed flawlessly the last six months.

Glreno, good questions! And I agree with you.

When I ordered that preamp, I asked for it to be a single chassis unit with balanced output. These two "options" were not done right but they didn't cause a dangerous situation. No worries there.

To the best of my knowledge the faulty preamp was returned to Mick a while ago. Recently when I inquired about an upgrade of my Syrah, Mick suggested I return my preamp to him and not sell online since it too has a few factory errors. He informed me that he didn't want ANY MORE malfunctioning or mis-implemented preamps floating around out there.

Whatever the case, he seems to have learned a lesson.

I agree with Glreno that Brian's announcement will hurt Mick's reputation, and the value of all of us that currently own a Supratek preamp. My recently arrived Syrah is perfect and equals all of the excellent reviews here on Audiogon for build and sound quality.
I would encourage Mick to consider recalling the "bad" Cortese. In addition I recommend all Audiogon sellers to be honest about the condition of their equipment as it will then encourage more people into the high end market, which includes listening experimentation and resale of components. The component integrity of the high-end community is quickly noticed.

Thanks Brian for clearing-up the recall issue with the "incorrect" Cortese. This confirms my opinion that Mick is serious about providing a high quality product, and is striving to improve his designs and internal components.

Good for Mick! Small manufacturers need to be mindful of their reputations, and the damage one or two bad products can cause to them if allowed to make their way through the audio community. I just wish I would have had the chance to hear a good one. Thanks for the info on the other pres, Tbg. Is there a website for these things?