Preamp Deal of the Century

Never listened to the Cabernet. From trading emails with Mick about the dif between the Sauvignon and Cabernet, and reading posts on AA regarding the DHT sound I believe that I have a good idea of how the Cabernet will sound. I think I will prefer the Cabernet over the Sauvignon in my system but I think that it will be a matter of preference and synergy as to which is better. I am expecting there to be some tradeoffs in sound between the two.

I will say that I believe that Mick has a certain kind of sound that he voices for. In other words Mick doesn't just engineer a good design and then just assemble top-shelf components. Mick has done a lot of experimenting with different designs, implementations, and components and he knows how each will affect the sound and which will get him to the sound he is looking for. Some of this is apparent from his webiste, the rest I gathered from trading emails with him and asking silly questions. So because I have confidence in how he voices his gear and because I already have one of his preamps, the decision to purchase another of his preamps was not a hard decision to make.

Hello Gang. Re: rolling regulators and rectifiers. Jazzdude's observations regarding soundstage stability and re: equipment employing vaccum tubed power supplies is rather astute and really very relevent here. Most of us with the supratek preamps know the pre is quite sensitive to the tubes employed in it.Ones choice of 6sn7's is usually chosen for it's voicing and its synergy with the partnered amps and speakers in a given room.Ones choice of rectifier and its marriage with the regulation tubes used will also add another spice to the recipe. A rather sublime artifact; that is not so easy to put your finger on right away because they do not directly affect tone or frequency. Soundstage stability is the primary reason why Mullard rectifiers have long been considered the rectifier of choice among tube amp enthusiast,guitar players,hobbyist and collectors alike.When employed in amplifiers using power tubes in the output,this soundstage stability artifact becomes a much larger issue and paramount with ones choice of rectifier. Ask yourself:Why do Mullard rectifiers command 5 to 10 times the price of the modern equivalents or other 5ar4's from the same vintage?[new or used] Collectors and speculators ya say? Think again! The soundstage stabilty thing that Jazzdude is talking about here is "THE" reason.Any competent guitar player with half an ear and a vintage tube amp will tell you the same and the mullard rectifier will last as long as the amp. ASA has really nailed down the sonic signature of the supratek and apptly penned it as being on the "clear side". NOW gang,just for fun....You want to hear "clearly" what Jazzdude is on about??? For those that are presently using a strong testing NOS mullard or bendex rectifier[90% minimum] Choose an appropriate live recording that you are very familiar with and would consider to having large dynamic swings and accompanied by a vocal.Pay particular attention to the precise placement or location and size of the vocalist on the stage. NOW pull your nos rectifier and replace it with the stock 5ar4/gz34,let it warm up a least 1/2 hour and replay it again. In my rig... the precise location of the vocalist will wander or slightly drift from his/or her precise place on the stage both laterally and vertically.The size does not change,but his/her location will drift. With the mullard in place,the vocalist is precicely focused in his/her own place on the stage.There is no drift,wander or shift. This artifact really becomes obvious in size and scale when the accompaning band gets cooking at the same time....drummers kicking,horns are honking,pianos a hammering in time with the vocal.Does everthing remain in scale and in the same place?does the drum kit get a little smaller or the cymbals wander slighty left or right of the drum kit? Or maybe the piano sounds wider on the bottom registers in relation to the upper keys when the band gets going. The piano size and scale [distortion thing] is one that is easily heard and can be very difficult to get right to begin with, let alone listening to rectifiers for chrissakes!However..Of all instrument,the piano is the easiest instrument to hear this drifting thing happen especially if accompanied by a human voice. Geez gang.....I think Im getting a little carried away here.Just try it people,let your ears be the judge!

Jazzdude

I am sitting with a Cortese and absolutely love it. Based on Mick's improvements on the Cortese and Grange that he announced on this thread late last fall, I am wondering whether I should jump to the Grange or send my Cortese off for an upgrade.

Please do let us all know about the Cabernet when you get it up and broken in and how is stacks up.

Which Supratek pre-amp do you have now ? Do the Cortese and Cabernet share most of the same tubes in their complements?

Rodger, thank you for listing your system. That was very forth right and I appreciate the sincere effort.

I think we are coming from different places. I am an all NOS tube, hard wired, SE triode, analog kinda guy. To me, Bryston SS through Nordost to metal dome Monitor spkrs couldn't be more of a bright combination. I'm not saying that any of these were "bad" choices, just ones that are place-specific "correct" IMHO; as in, what appears correct when you are at a certain place. With that said, I have recommended Bryston to people in certain situations, particularly when they want something to last forever, would like the 20 yr warranty idea for that reason, prefer dynamic headroom and detail as priorities and would never go tubes no matter how long they hung around the high end.

My intuition, if you don't mind me offering it, as a measure of your cognitive agility relative to your curiousity, is that you may want to move beyond where you are right now, its approach, at some point.

Cash is always a consideration, I know, at least it is for me, but others here may be able to give you some ideas to start off with. Or at least, give you some ideas on what you might try in the future.

I have the Sauvignon, the line-stage version of the Cortese. The Cabernet is the linestage version of the Grange. According to Mick the only tube complement difference between the two linestages is the 101D. There are at least 2 subs, the WE101D and WE101F. The WE101FA, WE216A might also work. These tubes are somewhat scarce but the good thing about them is that the WE datasheets state an average life of 40,000 hours. So one pair of NOS WE101D tubes could last over 4 years of 24/7 operation or the whole life of a preamp if you only leave it on a few hours a day.