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
Yes the alpha lam experience would seem to be far from typical.As soon as as read his post I thought to myself that sounds like a unit which had been messed with by some incompetent person.About ten years ago some people on the long Supratek thread were promoting swapping the standard caps for all sorts of more exotic and crazy alternatives.I suspect that is what happened to this unit except whoever replaced the stock caps also wired one in the wrong way round.Also the 101D Cabernets were my least favourite Suprateks and I have heard them all A bit too "characterful" for me although they might be great in the right system.Might be time to send that unit back to Supratek to be corrected and perhaps upgraded to the latest circuit/different DHT.
Also yes not all Suprateks have transformers in the chrome domes.It depends on the era/model.Both mine do. The domes were retained to  maintain a consistent aesthetic.
I own one of the 6SN7/DHT 300B/45 pre amps and it has to be one of the best sounding pre amps that i have owned without spending 25k and more.
I was referring to the b+ filtering cap for the DHT filament, which was soldered in reverse. This obviously would fail to work for its intended purpose of smoothing out ripple. I believe what my eyes see and you are just speculating that it was modded. These are the same electrolytic caps used for all filaments and the same as in the pictures of the supratek online. I bought this from a reputable dealer years ago.

Anyway it seems like negative comment is the minority here. 
No, it's the fact what you posted is not the norm.

And what about your summary? What are you implying? Your experience with a used piece that was purchased ten years ago is what future new owners should expect to experience? The fact that what you bought was used and is not what most have experienced should make you think.