Supratek Owners Thread

@couger4u   so did you ever clear up the hum that came from the speakers?    Is the only hum your concerned with now from the unit itself (mechanical)?   These 2 different types of noise/hum would point (seemingly) to 2 different issues.   Have you tried to move and plug the unit in at another location in your house or over at a friends house as previously mentioned?    The umbilical itself I would not suspect as causing the hum as Mick mentioned.  I have seen a case where the connection point of the umbilical (to the case)  caused hum in the speakers and if the umbilical was shifted around that hum would cease,..  This (umbilical) is not related to mechanical hum from the PS itself though.    I think you need to completely rule out the power in your house as a cause for the PS mechanical hum you seem to be referring to above though. 

Thanks jslateiv but I think I solved the issue. Well the issue with the hum is solved and another popped up in its place. I took the equipment apart and put is together again but hum was there. Then on a whim I disabled the gain on the preamp and voila hum is gone. I turn it back on and hum is there. Could have Mick missed a trick here? It should not hum if the gain is on. I will have to ask Mick about it. I like the gain on. Thanks guys it was a journey to solve this problem.

I just bought a used Chardonnay and got it running after a few hiccups like a stuck input selector and then getting a bit confused on using the correct input. But, all is well and this is one terrific preamp!!
A few things that were noticeable right away: 
1) detail retrieval is excellent 
2) this is the best representation, by far, of individual voices in a chorus 
3) voices and instruments are much more natural 
4) less glare/harshness and I’ll admit to having an asymmetrical room that needs lots of treatments  

The tubes I currently have are 
5U4C rectifier - Russian (green and white box)
6NS7                Tung-Sol 
6N3C                no brand visible

I’m quite open to tube rolling and an upgraded umbilical cord, maybe even a fuse upgrade. A couple of Agon members have been very helpful already and I much appreciate that. 

couger4u: if you turn down the gain and turn up volume, and reduces the hum and noise. That's probably because the hum is power supply related. My Cabernet has the same characteristic. I used to run the Cabernet 101D with lower gain with higher volume to minimize the noise and hum. The downside is higher level of distortion. You might like the result though. 

@couger4u    In regards to the gain control.  This is essentially a volume control placed at the end of the signal chain.  The main (front panel) volume knob is placed on the input, before the 1st tube stage.   If the 'gain' is engaged and the knob is fully counter-clockwise,. it is the same as not being in the signal.   As Alpha is saying,  if the noise is inherent in the circuit (and there's always some though typically very low),  the relationship between the noise and vol. controls (including gain control) will be the same.  ie,  lowering the gain will seemingly lower the noise but you would need to raise the main vol. back up (thus essentially increasing the noise) to make up for the lost gain.   One thing to keep in mind here,..   the pre's are very high gain to begin with.   It takes very little input to get a big/healthy output,  so the hotter the input signal from your source,  ie, 2+ Volts,   the less range you will get out of your vol. knob (regardless of using the gain control). This is also compounded by the amp sensitivity.  The gain control is useful in situations where the amp has a very high sensitivity and if the source has a hot output in the >+2v range..   You must be careful though to not reduce the gain so much that for a hot input/source you end up allowing too much signal (Vol. knob turned way up) into the 1st stage of the circuit.   This is when/where you will start to get some induced distortion as Alpha mentions.   If your curious as to test the inherent noise of the pre in relation to your amps sensitivity,..   turn the gain off,  if your pre has a gain switch in addition to the gain control knob, use the switch to completely remove the control knob from the circuit;  Once done,  select a input/source but do not 'play' anything.   Turn the volume control up until you start to hear the noise in the circuit.  Mark this spot on the volume knob.   Now,  turn the volume back down,  play something from the source that is selected and raise the volume knob back to the marked spot.  If the pre is functioning correctly and the noise is in the normal range (ie, no problems with the circuit) then the music should be extremely loud at this point and WAY over the noise you heard in the previous test.  As mentioned earlier this is VERY dependent upon the sensitivity of your amp.   If you have a solid state amp that has a very high sensitivity, ie, ~500mv   then   you will start to hear the pre's noise quicker within the volume range,  but the vol. control will also have less range unless the gain control is engaged a little.   A little gain reduction here could be useful but I would caution against using to much,  especially if the source has a very hot/high output.   For what its worth,  I have found that operating the Volume control in the 8-11am range is optimal,.  generally speaking of course).   Hope this helps a little.