Supratek Owners Thread

When I asked about a copper Cabernet last year Mick said he wasn’t offering those anymore because the scratch too easily. 

When you order remember that you can customize the preamp. It’s one of the advantages of a made to order item. I opted for a 6v/12v switch and an extra set of balanced outputs. I see someone else had theirs made to accept 8sn7 tubes. Others have decided to use 6j5 tubes instead. 6sn7 tubes have gotten so expensive it might be worthwhile to explore other options. 

 "When you order remember you can customize the preamp"

Yes and no lol....

last week I tried to upgrade the power supply on a Chardonnay order and Mick basically talked me out of it.

Between his saying the boutique caps, resistors and inductors can "feel good"

they really don't do that much to improve the sound, only "change it"....

also stressing the real magic in the design is in the "tube shunt regulator".

After this and more I gathered he may not have wanted to make the PS upgrade,

Im sure I could have insisted, but I decided to leave things alone.

I think it’s fair to say that Mick considers those more tweaks than anything else. I also understand his reasoning behind not wanting to change the sound of his product. He knows and understands how his products sound. When you make things sound different he doesn’t know what the end result will be. And to be fair, you don’t either! Lol. Once you get a feel for the sound you can always tweak it later on  

When I talk about customizing I’m talking about functional differences as opposed to circuit or design changes. Appearance, tube voltages, outputs, inputs, etc.

Agreed.

 I asked for an upgraded power supply....which I believe is the main difference between the Chardonnay and Cabernet.....

Another way of saying "please change my order to Cabernet"

LOL!

Nah,.. you dont understand the PS, and how its built.  There is very little difference if any between the  chardonnay / cab PS.   The main PS feeds the tube regs which make it what it is and do the major cleaning/stabilization of the V feeding the circuit.  The main difference people see in the 2 models is between the regs either being on the pre or located on the PS.  It is purely cosmetic and he actually makes the cab a lot of times with the regs on the pre chassis.   The PS circuit for both is the same.  Adding in a boutique cap in the PS before the the regs is honestly a waste of money as well.  My opinion on (and his) on using fancy parts in areas that they wont make a difference.  I’ve been lucky to hear a ton of his amps in just as many configs including ‘tricked out’ PS’s etc,..  it aint worth it and the reliability drops.