Preamp Deal of the Century

Waltersalas,

I like your idea about sharing with other Supratek owners what the rest of our systems consist of. It would be a good idea to start a Supratek club (if we could stop listening to our preamps long enough). Here is my system:

Supratek Syrah preamp (Synergistic Research AC Master PC)
Tung-Sol 6sn7 round plates (line stage), Tung-Sol 5881's Power supply), Sylvania VT-231 JAN 1944's (in reserve).

Audio Research 100.2 power amp (TG Audio HRS PC)
Granite Audio 650 CD player (Granite Audio 555 PC)
VPI mk4 TT/JMW Memeorial Tonearm/Benz Glider cartridge

Turntable is modified with BDR mk4 cones repacing stock feet and BDR "cut down" cones on top of the 4 springs under the plinth. BDR record clamp.

Gallo Nucleus Reference speakers (MIT 750 plus speaker cord)
PS Audio line conditioner for digital
PowerVar line conditoner for analog.
MIT 330 plus2 IC between preamp and amp
TG Audio silver IC between preamp and cd player

Hey Gang-

I received my chardonnay today and I just now hooked it up but I'm have some serious problems. The sound is totally "chocked", as if there is no power at all. There's barely any noise from the woofers. Just wondering what I'm doing wrong.

It is bit too early in the morning to call Mick. Wondering if any of you might be willing to help with the setup. Please send me a note with your phone number and I'll give a call in the next half hour. Or if you prefer to call, let me know so I can send you my phone#.

Thanks a lot.
Jewel

Time now: 8:05pm EST

Jewel - First, is your Chardonnay stock or did you order yours with XLR outputs?

If it has XLR outputs, check the switch on the back between the RCA output and the XLR output, Make sure it points to the output you are using and not in the middle. Yes.. Mick uses a 3 way switch to do a 2 way job.

This may sound silly but make sure the selector knob is switched to the correct input. They are not marked but usually the lowest position on the knob (to the left) is the first input on the preamp.

Then.. you will want to ensure the gain switch is engaged so it best matches your system.

Also, the tape loop switch should be in the center

If you need help. Email me your number. I would be happy to assist. If I can.

Hi Jewel, I had the same problem when I first hooked mine up, I second Bwhite on checking the flip switch in the back and also on the tape loop,make sure the switch in the front for it is flipped towards you, because if it's engaged no sound will come out.
Another thing, when I first hooked mine up I also used one of the inputs to act a theater pass thru from the HT processor and it initially worked but after I turned it of and on again after a few hours no sound comes out on my two front speakers. So I disconnected the hometheater pass thru and hooked the amp directly to my HT processor diconnecting all the line to the Chardonay and it works fine. When I put the Chardonay back online with the theater pass thru it works again initially then it will not again after I turned it off. The only thing I can think of after that is, the Chardonay is very sensitive to other electronics hooked up to it. Try and keep it simple as much as you can.
I'll email you my phone number, call me at home, I will be up late.

Quick Update - Thank you all (bmotorcycle, bwhite, Rmml and Mick) for comming to the resque in such short notice. My preamp is still out of commission. And to add to it, I messed it up even more by turning the two (inside the preamp unit) pods (wrong knobs) that look like volume pods since Mick document refers to them as "inside gain control switches). I should have been used the toggle switches but I wasn't thinking, I went straight for anything that resembled volume control.

In any event, here is what has happended so far:

1) inserted the rectifier tube onto the power unit
2) connected IC from power-amp to "out1" RCA on preamp
3) connected IC from CD-player to "CD" RCA on preamp
4) attached a powercord to the power unit and plugged into the wall -- units powered up immediately because the power on/off button was already in the "on" (drepressed) position -- my fault.
5) the "5AR4 rectifier" tube a Phillips 5G4GT on the power supply chassis flaired up a little but settled down quickly.
6) I placed a Dianna Krall CD in the CD player and hit the play botton with the volume at about 10% - no sound. I kept increasing the volume until it was at 75-80% on volume knob. There was sound but totally "chocked" (for symtoms see my post) as I mention on the previous post.
7) I called Bmotorcyle -- he thought it must be the rectifier tube going bad. I thought as much since there were flairs. He also suggested that I open up the unit and play with the inside gain controls. I openned up the unit turned the wrong things which I later found out.
8) hooked the units back up and powered up. The rectifier tube flaired up once more and this time it died. None of the tubes had any light ob both units.
9) I went out for dinner more than a drinks to drown out my sorrows.
10) Got home and read Bwhite's note.
11) This morning I got up and read Rmml's note.
12) Called Mick and gave him the sequence of events. Mick wasn't exactly sure what the problem was but pointed out that I tunred the wrong things inside the unit. It also turns out that I had the "tape monitor" toggle swtich in the wrong setting. It was set back instead of forward. This in fact could well have been the problem but he was not absolutely sure. Mick said if I want I can send the unit back and he can send me a replacement unit. I thought it might be worth trying it here if I can get a hold of a replacement rectifier today (saturday) in NYC -- I doubt it though. If I find a rectifier I'm supposed to call Mick back this evening (morning his time) so he can walk me through how to reset the voltage back to 300 volts, this is due to turning the wrong knobs inside the unit.

But here's the kicker (stupid me) -- while I was switching back to my prior setup, a McIntoch C32 preamp hooked to a AirTigh ATM-2 power amp. By mistake I plugged the power-amp ICs into the CD-1 of preamp and ICs from CD-player into the Line-1 of the preamp (just reversed). Obviously there was no music, I even turned the volume up but still no music. Looks like I might have fried my power amp.

Think I'm ready for a few more drinks!!

I will keep you posted...

Jewel