Thoughts on the Supratek Chardonnay

Herman,
I have delved into my unit, having it opened up to see what makes it tick.. out of curiosity. Being a mechanical engineer I can appreciate the simplicity and design that has gone into this unit. Intimate circuitry knowledge .. No, but enough electronics knowledge to know it is well made. Perhaps my use of ‘bullet proof’ was not the best use of terminology but hopefully you get my meaning.

“Sounds awesome’, yes subjective… but I could not find anything under $3000 new or used that I liked better. Sorry to hear you did not get the resolution out of your Syrah. My detail and resolution is ‘outstanding’… there I go being subjective again : ) What Speakers, CDP and amp do you use?

Good listening

I am running a Chenin for almost a year now. No hum, or "reliability" issues of any sort. I used to have the Odyssey Stratos Monos and the Supratek can drive the amp with ease. The combination is wonderful! I tried some tube preamp with those amp before and it never quite get the "right" sound for me.

At present, I am using my Chenin to drive a PWM amp (ICE H2O)and it has lots of detail. In fact, this is probably one of the many great feautures using a PWM amp in one's sytem. In my experienced, I find it hard to accept that the preamp is the one to blame as far as "resolution" is concern. But of course, it is just me.

I had one of the first Syrahs. After about six months one channel went out. It was going to cost me $350 in shipping to have it repaired by Supratek. Being a friend of John Tucker's, I ask if he might be able to repair it. He did so. I know of two additional Syrahs that he repaired. This was very early in production of this unit.

Tbg. Give it a rest pal,you know your skating on some really thin ice here.

I know of a few Supratek's which have needed repairs - including my first Chardonnay - several years ago. In my case, Mick covered the costs to repair locally. My Cortese has been flawless.

Sound wise, it totally depends on the tubes you use. The Supratek can go from annoyingly sterile to deep-dark and overly lush. But regardless of tonal balance, the Supratek remains lively and overall is a "pretty" sounding preamp - which tends to make the rest of your system sound better.

Not-so-good CD players sound better - really good CD players sound good - but not as good as I imagine they could if the Supratek was more transparent - having less character.

I think you'd prefer the Supratek to the ARC.