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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.
markusthenaimnut
jackd
1,078 posts
 
All of Mick's remotes are 3rd party so just get a simple one you like and get the setup code from him.  $10 or so on Amazon.
duramax747
218 posts
 
Just pulled the trigger on my first tube pre and decided to go with a Supratek.
isaacc7
44 posts
 
I posted in the tube rolling thread but it looks like this has more activity so ai'll post here too. I got my Cabernet about a month ago. When I ordered I had Mick add a switch that allows me to use either 6sn7 or 12sn7 tubes. The vintage 6sn7 tubes have gotten into the stratosphere while the best 12sn7 tubes are just sky high in price...

It took some time for me to get a sound I really liked better than using a passive preamp. Initially the Cabernet really screwed up my system, it sounded terrible! Figured out my DAC was sending 4v via its balanced connection. Switched to RCA cables and got results more in line with what I was expecting. 

The general sound is bigger and lusher than with the passive. I'm not quite getting the detail but I think the tonal qualities make up for it. Plus the bass is amazing. 

So far I have cycled through a variety of tubes. Mick sent a pair of 12sx7 along with PSVane 6sn7. The 12sx7 are quite good and are a good benchmark to compare the other tubes. The "bad boy" Sylvania 12sn7 tubes seem to turn the vividness up and tightened up the bass. The round plate Tungsol tubes have lived up to their reputation as exquisite all rounders. They sound so... right. Can't put my finger on it but they sound different than the other but so satisfying. 

My most interesting tubes IMO are a pair of grey glass Sylvania 14n7 tubes. The 14n7 has the extra copper support rods like the super expensive metal based Sylvania 6sn7wgt. I have never heard of a sylvania grey glass 6sn7 before though. Anyway, these sound thicker, heavier. 

I could be happy with any of these really. They sound different but none of them sound bad. I'll eventually get around to trying the PSVane 6sn7, a variety of 7n7, and a few Sylvania 6sn7 tubes of various vintages. 
markusthenaimnut's avatar
markusthenaimnut OP
378 posts
 
Geez. What a genius idea. Wish I'd thought of it.
duramax747
218 posts
 
Because of the high cost of the 6sn7 tube set, as stated,  I decided to go with a 6J5GT tube in the preamp Mick is building me. 
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