Supratek Owners Thread

Heh, just realized all of the ones I mentioned need adapters lol. These should be pretty close to the same tubes if you get the 6sn7 versions but the prices will make you cry:)

GEC/Marconi/Osram b63

Raytheon VT231

Sylvania 6sn7wgt 

I’m not sure if there is an equivalent 6sn7 to the round plate Ken Rad… My advice is don’t be afraid of adapters, especially if you want access to the best sounding tubes at a reasonable cost. 10-15 years ago you could buy any tube you wanted even if some were more expensive than others. Now some of the best tubes are difficult to find and are incredibly expensive when you do find them. I think the NOS tube rolling game has just about run its course, at least for the generally accepted “best” versions. You can still get great single triodes. A 6j5 is just a half of a 6sn7 so two of them are exactly the same electrically. Mick would be happy to make a preamp with 2x 6j5 instead of 6sn7 if you don’t want to use adapters. Or do what I did and get the option to use 12v tubes *and* use adapters:)

@isaacc7 Oh well I think I will start out with traditional 6sn7 tubes.  I really don’t want to mess around with adapters starting out.  Mick included a 40-50’s Radiotron 6SN7gt pair made in Australia.  I have pairs of Rca grey glass 6SN7gt’s, Rca 6SN7gta’s and Raytheon 6SN7gtb’s from the 50’ s to start out. Power tubes I have a selection of 6L6’s to try as well.  Should be fun.  Thanks for your suggestions.

Regarding the use of adapters - In the owners manual Mick cautions against "excessive" tube rolling, because it can cause the sockets to eventually lose some of their grip.

Hence I use socket savers.

In my DHT i'm using Cossor WE300b tubes which are a major upgrade over the stock Psvane tubes. For a rectifier tube i'm using a Phillips 5R4GYS immediate improvement over the JJ GZ34, the music is cleaner with an added layer of textures presenting a very real soundstage. The 6SN7's have made the least impact as to sound maybe because of their use as driver tubes, i'm using original Bad Boy's. The Cossor WE300b's are very close in sound to original WE 300b's and for the price are hard to beat i bought mine from VKmusic. The biggest surprise was the 5R4GYS rectifier tube which was a major improvement in sound right from the beginning.

Thanks everybody on this thread for sharing your experience with Supratek/Mick. It was extremely useful to me making my decision.

I just placed an order for Cortese LCR preamp/phono.

I cant wait to receive and hear this preamp. It was go against my current pre - EAR Yoshino 868PL preamp so stakes are somewhat high already.

I will share my feedback..in few months once I receive it..

Cheers.