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Preamp Deal of the Century

If anyone is looking for a true "World Class" preamp at a very fair price..heed my advice. I just recieved a Supratek Syrah preamp that was hand built by Mick Maloney in Western Australia, and it is absolutely beautiful! This preamp is the best deal you will ever find. I would put it up against any preamp out there for both looks and sound. Price? $2500 for the Syrah (includes Killer Phono stage). Not into phono? Try the Chardonney line stage for $2100. Don't get me wrong, I am not associated with this company. I am just a very happy owner! This preamp is VERY dynamic, yet liquid. It conveys the sound of music better than any other preamp that I have ever heard! You can check out the Supratek website at www. cantech.net.au
slowhand
rrboogie
43 posts
 

I am a happy new owner of a Cabernet 6SN7. I was a bit worried that I would have an issue with the noise floor or tube hiss on my 100db efficient Altec A7 since I had issues with a Border Patrol EXT, Modwright LS 36.5 and a Rogue RP 7. I can happily report that the Supratek is dead quiet at the speakers when no music is playing. The soundstage, imaging, vocals, percussion etc are the best I have heard in my system. Everything sounds very realistic.

markusthenaimnut's avatar
markusthenaimnut
371 posts
 

Greetings Fellow Humans - 

I just popped by to see what's new in this "most popular all-time" thread in the amps & preamps forum. Nice to see that the thread is still drawing visitors and folks are as enthusiastic as ever.

I'll post a "four+ year follow-up" review:

My Supratek Cortese continues to sound wonderful. Several amplifiers have cycled through my system since I got the Cortese - I'm now using custom SET 45 monoblocks to drive my Altec A7 Magnificents very satisfactorily. The Supratek is always delightful, always reliable.

Oh, one system upgrade that was an eye-opener for me was to switch over to Cardas Neutral Reference interconnects and speaker wires. They are very nice, though relatively modest and not up to Cardas current state-of-the-art standards. But they sound wonderful.

Hope everyone has a wonderul holiday season.

Best regards...

Markus (no longer the) Naimnut

markusthenaimnut's avatar
markusthenaimnut
371 posts
 

Hey Fellow Supratek owners - 

Just a quick question - what E180F tubes are you preferring?

Markus

charliee's avatar
charliee
178 posts
 

Markus, 

 I have used the Phillips PQ, Phillips SQ, and Mullards. I also have Valvo and CEI, but I haven't run any of these two brands yet. I can't tell any difference in sound between the Phillips and the Mullards. Mick told me a while back that he thinks that Phillips may have made all of them, which could explain why they sound the same. 

nymarty
107 posts
 

Just bought a used Supratek Chardonnay. Wow! I don't have anything super high end to compare it to -- prior preamps include Adcom GFP-750, Schiit Freya+ with some nice NOS 6SN7 tubes -- but am very happy with the purchase.  One question for Supratek owners -- can you use the balanced output AND the single-ended outputs at the same time?   I'm running balanced right now (with the toggle switch set to XLR) and it's very clean and sounds great.  I'd like to use one of the RCA outputs at the same time to a pair of subs but trying that introduced a good bit of hum to the speaker outputs.  If I switch toggle to RCA, hum goes away but now nothing is going to XLR.  So I'm assuming I can't do it but wanted to check with others.  Thanks.

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