Preamp Deal of the Century

Cortese LCR arrived last week. Took about a month from order to delivery if I was willing to forego bling and go with powder coat. It’s in a dedicated room that not any people see, so, fine by me. First serious tube amp replacing Freya. With only a couple dozen hours on it, it’s showing hints of what’s to come. The line stage is enthralling and the phono stage is intoxicating. How much so? I’m loving it so much with my Chapmans that I’ve been letting a pair of recently acquired vandersteen 7’s sit on their pallets upstairs for a couple weeks. No hurry

My 6SN7 Cabernet arrived Monday. Starting to open up nearing 40 hours in. Like the man said, no hurry. 

Congrats to the folks with the new preamps! It took my Cabernet a little while to really open up. I’ve never put much stock into the concept of burn in but the Cabernet underwent a really big change and burn in is the only explanation I can think of. 

As I am nearing the end of the originally promised 3 month delivery window, I contacted Mick for an update. As expected, the chrome plating 'bling" is causing a delay of 6 weeks. A real hand on heart test of human patience..... Gotta have the bling, though. The unit (Standard Grange Dual LS) will be front and center in our living room. Will report back with updates. In the meantime, continuing to enjoy my excellent Chardonnay LS, now with LinLai Elite 6SN7s - very nice. 

I ordered a Chardonnay 3  January 31st and Mick said mine will have the Linlai 6sn7 tubes also. I guess the chrome plating "bling" has also caused my Chardonnay 3 to be delayed. He did mention the supply chain and sourcing tubes is beginning to cause many delays. Patience is still a virtue.......

Chuckie