Preamp Deal of the Century

You should audition several pairs of cables in your system from www.fatwyre.com, buy the ones you like best. I would try something from Cardas, Kimber, Acoustic Zen, and MIT within your price range. Decide on your interconnects first. Then choose your speaker cables. If you find cables don't make a difference to you, count yourself lucky. In that case, NOS tubes probably won't matter to you either. Think of all the money you are going to save with lamp cord cabling and sovtek tubes.

Hi jazzdude
I Have to laugh at those last two lines, that is great stuff. You know I just wanted to build a small HT system, and now I have jumped in with both feet, and the water is a little over my head, but I am loving every minute of it. I mean a tube preamp as my first preamp, and one that is made in Australia. What can I say, if I am going that far lamp cord cabling and sovtek tubes just won't do. Thanks for the advice.

Regards Tim

I think goertz and purist audio should be in there with the other cable auditions, along with cardas and kimber. i personally did not like the MIT cables I had, but they were from the lower end of their line up.

i was like you tim, started off small, with a tube integrated about 2 years ago, and it fueled a big fire. i've easily heard differences in NOS tubes and cables -- have fun! you'll love the supratek. despite a big upgrade bug gnawing at me, i am too scared to change anything in my system now as it sounds SO good.

Hi Dennis
I say don't mess with a good thing, but it can be hard not to especially with all the what if's. Once you start it can very easily turn into a wildfire, look at me. Enjoy your music! In a few more months I soon will be enjoying mine.

Regards Tim

Tim,

I just got my Syrah, second hand. In the past week I've tried about 20 different tubes, 3 power cords, 5 pairs of ic's, and 2 amps.

The sovtek 5881's are not that bad, but I deiced to go with JJ's for now. I didn't want to pull the Tung Sols out of my amp, but that's next. The Mullard rectifier is the only way to go. I like the rca grey glass black base 6sn7gt. And, even thought my system is primarily analog, I'm using the stock phono tubes. They actually sound quite good (not really!). Today is the day I roll phono tubes, I'll let ya know.

I started with the cord supplied, went to a silver one, then a Zu. I like the Zu.

Now this is where in gets interesting. Since the only ic's are from the pre to the amp, it was easy too. CD doesn't count. They are not made for serious listening IMHO. Started off with one of those $2000 retail here at auction, that you can get for $200 gold/silver/copper/best you ever heard ic's. Sounded like shit. Went to a low dollar (under 100) pair. Sounded about 5 times better. Kept playing around. Now, I happened to have a set of Zu component video cables, extra's from the HT. I feel that's the best video cable you cab buy, so I says "self, lets try it" Wow, works like a charm, and will stay. $75! Any flak I get for this, all I can say is; It works for me, in MY system.

Another wierd one. My Belles 150 sounds better than the Audio Note Soro SE. I cannot figure this out, because I use AN speakers, AN cd, and AN speaker cables. So, I might have done something wrong here. It may have to do with the way you have to wire the Soro, because it's not made to be used as a stand-alone amp. I will be playing with this further, and trying to get some help on this board too.

So, I guess my point is, all of the set-up ideas given in this thread are fine, but may not work in YOUR system. I spent a lot of money on a NOS pair of Ken-Rad black glass VT231, and I like the RCA's Better, IN MY SYSTEM.

So, take it all with grain of salt, try a few different things, and have some fun!

BTW, I forgot about the 3 pairs of speaker cables, the AN won hands down.

Joe