a tube amplifier repair technician

Mrjstark,
I'm a little late to respond, but anyway:
I'm an ex-Supratek (make it two) owner, and I agree with you on the treble.
But, I think, I know a secret how to fix it.
Supratek uses silver- plated copper wire, and I think that's the culprit. How do I know?
Recently I had a tube amp made by very well regarded and respected manufacturer, who shall remain nameless, that is using the same type silver-plated copper wire in the chassis.
You guessed it, it sounded exactly like Supratek in terms of exaggerated and kind of discontinued from the rest of the frequency range, treble.
I changed the signal wire to a pure OCC Cryoed copper- and
the glare is GONE. Much more organic presentation.
I'm willing to bet money, that changing signal wire in Supratek will cure that treble.
Forget about tube rolling, changing ICs, speaker cables, support system and room treatments- it is not going to work. Been there, done that.
BTW, Bob Backert done a few jobs for me as well.
Luckily I live 10 min away from him.
The nicest gentleman (his son Gary too) you can ever meet.

Thanks for the tip Maril555.
I will have to look into this silver wire "signature anomalies".
I am pretty sure that my new preamp also use this kind of wiring ( in very small amounts doug).
I am tring to get familiar with new toy, and them we will see..........

If you don't mind me asking ,
what did you upgraded to from Supratek?
If you want , I could shoot you a "P" email.

Thanks

Mariusz

Mrjstark,
E-mail me privately.

Cpk, thanks for the offer, I'll keep it in mind. As I mentioned before though, Bob does not seem to be a believer in burn-in hours on repeat play, or even cable cookers. He says the unit needs 'cycling', turning on/turning off. Especially to break in the caps, but for the wire too.

I do have the Cardas/Ayre burn in cd, and always felt it did a good job. I may give it a couple of spins next week.

BTW, my Marantz cd player was also modded by Chris at pcX. It sounds great, though I bought it already modified, so I don't have before/after comparisons.

Cheers,
John

John, interesting that Bob also feels that "cycling" is the best method of break-in...

I've been writing that in some threads over the past several months, as it is my experience as well. From a logical standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Steady state operation only gets one so far. A lot more change occurs as something heats up and cools down, and that is where the stress is.

My own, admittedly half-baked method, is to turn on a component, and run it for 8 - 18 hours, followed by a cooldown of 8 - 12 hours. Repeat that over the course of a few weeks.