Supratek Owners Thread

I have the Cabernet for a about two months. I posted earlier that my preamp get a hum when you come closer to the power supply but Mick said it is due to power supply being over engineered. Now the hum has seeped into the speakers and Mick says he received bad transformers and will send a new power supply when he can. He has not sent me the Psvane treasure tubes he promised me as he sent me some Russian tubes with the preamp. He is a one man show so I guess give him some time to correct all these issues but I am wondering for how long. At least he answers every email I sent him.

@gryphongryph  the umbilical is made with solid core wire and thus the stiffness. There is a stateside cable company that makes aftermarket umbilical's for the suprateks,... can't exactly remember the name. Audio Revelation maybe..   In this case the hum is going to be related to either the PS transformer  or the umbilical connection...  I'm pretty sure same for @couger4u     def try adjusting the position if the umbilical a little if the hum reappears,..  I'm of the opinion there is some intermittent / light connection issue in the interface.   I helped another owner with exact same issues and a new umbilical cleaned it right up.   @couger4u   read my earlier post to Gryph about how to temp. adjust/tighten the connectors..   very well may help your issue a bit.   @jtgofish and @luisma31   the TJ mesh should only be around 1.3amp.   Few 300b's  will be above 1.5a. (generally only the 'super' 300b's that are rated for much higher plate V/ dissipation)    The pre runs the 300b very lightly...

Long time Supratek user here. I owned a Cabernet Single since 2010. When I got it it was used and already had several issues. I told myself it was just common with tube equipment and I would fix it one day.

After 10 years owning and comparing it to a high voltage output DAC without preamp, I finally put myself to face the fact: The supratek just doesn't sound as good as without a preamp. And I also looked into the issues the unit has for so many years.

Frankly I was disappointed when I opened the unit. The two silver cans are empty and just for show. The unit actually uses PCB power transformers as output transformers.

I investigated the many issues with an oscilloscope. The right channel always had noise that felt like ground loop. Turns out it was a loose ground wire of the XLR connector to the center tap of the output transformer, probably due to poor soldering.

The right channel always felt louder to me, regardless how I swap the tubes between channel. Surely this was verified with a voltmeter and oscilloscope. It turns out the DHT filament wires were soldered in the other way round!

I also found the input tube clips when volume knob is pass 10 o'clock, which is just one third of the maximum volume! Still after so much tuning the phase of the two channels are still a little off.

The summary: if you plan to own a supertek, be prepared for a very involved experience. Either communicating with Mick or do it yourself as a project.. 

@Alpha_lam 

I find it interesting that you have one post here on Audiogon, and it's a negative one. Not trying to pick a fight. Just find it interesting.

Also, I note that you bought your Supratek used. How can you be sure that the issues you found were due to the way the equipment was built originally? Might the previous owner modified it or had it worked on by a someone who didn't know what they were doing? Isn't that possible? 

The purpose of *this* post is simply to reinforce my satisfaction with my Supratek Cortese, which I have now owned for about two years. It sounds superb and I doubt that I will ever replace it. I'm *not* saying there aren't better alternatives out there. I simply don't think I could afford them. 

Best regards,
Markus

Hi Markus,

As this thread is titled the owner thread and I thought my experience would be interesting to someone who owns a Supratek or planning to get one.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the preamp and it is good looking. And frankly my hearing could only tell a small difference between having the preamp versus not. That's why I kept it and continued to use for more than 10 years.

My intention was to present facts about my experience, which is the workmanship left a lot to be desired. And that caused actual issues in the sound. Namely loose wire and switched polarity of the electrolytic capacitor. It would be quite unthinkable that the original owner decided to solder the wires in opposite polarity. I am trained as an electronic engineer and tell the unit was not modded.

Anyway take it anyway you want, I still plan to work on the unit to further improve it. I'm looking forward to connect with fellow owners and trade ideas about tube rolling and modifications.

Last night I fixed the incorrect polarity and it corrected the volume imbalance issue on the Cabernet preamp. I plan to replace the electrolytic capacitor for the DHT filament and adds a film capacitor in parallel. Also planning to replace the TJ 101D with a set of Linlai.