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
I've made several recent changes to my system:
1 - picked up a used Audio Electronic Supply (AES) (Cary) SE-1 300b power amp. Hooked up to my 93dB sensitive JBL 4430s it sounds awesome. I've always been curious about the 300b bandwagon / sound and now I understand what all the fuss is about.
2 - picked up a new interconnect between my preamp and Quad 909 power amp. It is made using Gotham GAC 4/1 or 1/4 shielded wire or whatever (I hate these complicated names and don't want to take time to research back to Amazon, where I bought them). It is nicely burned in now and sounding very balanced. 
3 - the new interconnect has allowed me to insert my Morrow Audio SP4 speaker wires. Nice change.
4 - Cambridge Audio CXC transport feeding my MHDT Orchid DAC. 
5 - With the Garrard 401 I put together this summer I incorporated a VTAF (see Pete Riggle audio engineering for more on this). I'm now convinced that most people who review cartridges or criticize cartridges are... Well, let me say that correct VTA etc makes all the difference in the world. And unless that's dialed in - which takes a lot of time - then you're just not really hearing whatever cartridge accurately.
In Sept.  i had to cancel my order with Mick. My daughters car quit on her and with the holidays quickly approaching the wife said that the pre was going to have to wait and grudgingly i had to agree.

This weekend the wife gave me the green light to place another  order. I`am now looking at the DHT so looking back maybe everything has worked out for the best.
@rh67 I'll just note that I heard from one user that they preferred the 6SN7 stage of their Supratek to the DHT one... they had the following to say:  "...you will get the DHT lush sound, such sound although amazing is not my cup of tea for every day listening, I rather have a pre with 6SN7s, but that is just my preference."

The thread is over here:  https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/is-there-a-solid-state-amp-that-can-satisfy-a-set-guy?page=5

I seem to remember hearing the Supratek also recommends the 6SN7 as the preferred option in their preamps.
@cal3713 yeah I am that user, need to add that the DHT sound is very pleasant and I could listen and enjoy it very much as it is very special, just not on a daily basis.