Preamp Deal of the Century

Hello everyone,

Just want to share my experienced so far with the Chenin Preamp that I currently own.

After religiously following what Ecclectique and Cello suggested to me to leave the stock tubes and wait until about 100 hours or so for the preamp to open up a bit, my complaints on my posts above are now non-existent. I logged in about 100 hours or so and the preamp starts to show what it is really made of. With the stock tubes (Russian), I could live with this preamp for a long long time. With some tube rolling, the preamp is definitely a keeper IMHO and more.

I am into vinyl a lot and the phono section of the Chenin is vastly superior to my old one. Sadly I will sell my other phono preamp because with the Chenin I now cannot find a reason for me to keep it. My phono preamp before the Chenin is a decent one(see my system) and is respected for its value/performance by many including myself. After side by side comparison with the Chenin phono stage with the same table, arm, cartridge, and loading, the Chenin phono stage is absolutely not on the same level (and is much higher) than my other preamp. No contest! At least in my system. Maybe because the Chenin has the Cortese phono stage which is a 3 stage RIAA type and not just the normal 2 stage or maybe just a single stage. Mick mentioned to me that it is impossible to get a very accurate RIAA using a 2 stage type, let alone a single one.

So, here are some of the tubes I tried in my preamp which I absolutely love.

For phono, I found the Sylvania Gold Brand Gold Pin 6C4 and the Tungsol black plates 6C4 as very nice tubes for the Chenin. Next to them are the RCA(black plates not the grey type) and the GE's. The stock National Union is good too but I believe is inferior to the tubes mentioned above. At present, I am listening to the Motorola and liking it. I am excited about this tube because they are easily available (cheaper) than the other brands. I have two types of Motorolas. One in an orange, blk., and yellow carton and the other in a white and blue carton. The former sounds better to me.

As for the 6922(6DJ8) tubes of the phono, I cannot discern any difference yet wether I am using an Amperex PQ 6922 Gold Pin, Siemens 6922 Gold pin, Amperex BB Holland 6DJ8, Mullard 6DJ8, CBS 6DJ8, or the Telefunken 6DJ8's that I am currently using. Maybe the money tube for the phono section of the Chenin is the 6C4, who knows?

For regulators, I tried Tungsol 5881, RCA 6L6GC, the stock Sovteks(?), and the GE(pinkish base) 7581/KT-66(currently on the unit). The GE's are very very good in my system. The RCA's did not excite me at all!

For rectifiers, I am using the Mullard 5AR4/GZ34 and sounds much better than the stock tubes.

The linestage? Well, there are lots of people(owners) here who posted their findings already and I am just following what they recommended. Frankly, the linestage is amazing on this preamp so much so that even with all stock tubes (after 100 hours, take note) I finally have a desire of using my cd player often again (but not more than vinyl!) and with anticipitation of excitement in doing so.

Thanks to all who extend their help in answering my inquiries when I post here regarding my concerns (at first) when I just got the preamp.

Now I can subscribe and "feeling it" why Slowhand included "Deal of the Century...." on his first post. Like my friend who owns Odyssey Audio says, "you have to own one to understand..." how special this preamp really is!

Now it is time for me to save and hunt for the Tungsol round plates and RCA grey glass 6sn7's to experienced what others commented about their performance in the Suprateks. I wonder if Mr. Malecki(Tubeseller.com)have some pairs in his possesion(I am not affilited by any means to him or his business)? Hmmmmmmm....

Abe

Hello,

Anybody using KT66 as regulators on their Supratek preamps? Comments please especially experience on the GEC KT66 tubes.

Thanks,

Abe

Hi,

I've been reading this thread on and off for a while now and am considering taking the leap to a Chardonnay preamp. Currently, my system comprises: Anthem CD1 (with a single 6922), Blue Circle BC21.1 tube preamp (pair of 6922's), Blue Circle BC22 MKII amp (ss, 125 wpc), Rune speakers by Zu, mostly Zu cabling and Blue Cricle MR1200 balanced power conditioner. Music is mostly jazz, with some rock, pop and classical thrown in at times for further variety.

The speakers are essentially a single driver design, with a super tweeter taking over at 15kHz, rated at 100dB sensitivity. The power provided by the amp is probably overkill, but it seems to be a good match. I'm fairly pleased with the BC21.1, although at times I find the tube noise to be a little distracting. So my main concern in going with another tube preamp has to do with the distortion/noise of the Chardonnay/Chenin? My apologies if I missed this topic somewhere earlier in the thread.

Thanks in advance for any advice and comments.

Max

Luckily Supratek has been "chosen" as one of Audiogon's Showcase Dealers (surprise suprise). To the victors go the spoils. Or perhaps the opposite in this case. Any idiot knows the internet is an inherently superior medium of the written word and therefore not succeptible to the rigors of peer review or accountability. And the savy know better and cash in. To what century does this thread apply anyway?

Amandarae, I used the GEC KT66's and thought they were good, but the all metal 6L6s were better and the WE 350B's are by far the best.

I could have lived with the GEC's had I not tried the metal 6L6s or the 350Bs. Its been a while, but as I recall the tonality wasn't dead-on. But they beat the heck out of the stock tubes.