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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.
128x128markusthenaimnut
markusthenaimnut's avatar
markusthenaimnut OP
375 posts
 
Hey Supratek owners -

Please advise what your experience has been with tube failure in the phono stage of your preamp, in the 6H23/6922/E88C position. I’m especially interested in hearing from fellow Cortese owners. I’ve had two "much-earlier-than-expected" failures in one channel and wonder what other folks experience has been.

The first failure was the original, stock Russian 6H23. Just one out of the original pair.

Then I rolled in a lovely pair of tightly matched vintage Amperex JAN 7308s (super high-spec 6922/6DJ8s) into that position and they sounded lovely, until one of them failed. Now I’m reluctant to roll "sort of expensive" tubes in there and have reverted back to the ultra-inexpensive Russian 6H1Ps, which seem to be virtually indestructible. They don’t sound as fully fleshed out as the vintage Amperex tubes, but they sound pretty good.

So, anybody else experienced early tube mortality in that position?

And, out of interest, what tubes have you ended up with in there?

Markus
ruff2001
17 posts
 
Hey rosco88, my Jay's audio CDT2-MK3 remote works on my Cabernet DHT/6SN7. I hope that helps.
jslateiv
64 posts
 
@markusthenaimnut  in regards to your ques. above.  I've been running mine (LCR) for the last 2 years without issue.   The pre will stay on for 8-10 hrs at a time on a regular basis.   No small tube failure yet.    I have found that I prefer the 6n6p in the phono though.  Have used 7308 and the supplied 6h23.    In an earlier conversation with Mick he did mention to me that he had started to see a higher failure rate than expected with the 6h23's he was supplying for a while and recommended switching them out although I'm having no issue with mine yet at the moment,..  It's possible that the one 7308 you put in was already on the fence.   Just about imposible to tell with tubes.   I will say that the heater voltages are always spot on as they are regulated and the circuit does not put alot of stress (V/ma) on that tube (any of them for that matter).   May be nothing more than a bit of bad tube luck.  I do highly recommend trying some 6n6p if you haven't.  A touch less gain but that's rarely a problem in a Supra..  If you feel like somethings out of whack or are overly concerned I'd be happy to take a look for you and make sure everything is in spec.
luisma31
516 posts
 
Anyone care to comment on the new Grange preamp? I don't recall seeing any comments about the sound.
jslateiv
64 posts
 
@luisma   probably isn't but only 1 maybe 2 of the new Grange pre's with their owners yet.   I believe he only shipped the 1st one within the last month.     There's alot going on in that pre and it takes Mick a long time to complete the build.   Hopefully  an owner will post here with impressions but I'm pretty sure I already know how it'll go,.. lol
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