Preamp Deal of the Century

Hi Everyone

My Chenin should be here on Monday!! I can't wait to see it. I have one novice question. How many rectifier / regulator / power tubes do I need. Two of each? I have been browsing through some of the tube sites, and found GZ34 rectifiers for sale as singles. Do they come matched or unmatched? Do I need 1 or 2? You can tell I don't know what I am doing.

Regards Tim

1 rectifier, 2 power, 2 line stage. But, don't screw with the tubes until you get about a hundred hours on it. That way, you can try the tubes one at a time after you get it broken in a little. That's the only way you will be able to tell what works for you in your system.

Welcome to the Supratek club! As always, you only need to look through this thread to find the answer to any question you might have. If it's not here, ask and you shall be answered.

Congratulations Saint! Glad to hear your wait is finally over. The wait is painful but makes the experience somewhat sweeter I suppose.

I am currently waiting for my turntable to be completed and I'm pretty excited about it. Judy Spotheim-Koreneeff sent me photos of it today as she was doing the final testing.
It should look magnificent next to the Supratek.

Congrats Saint2!

I agree with Jphii, if you can resist swapping tubes until about 100 hours or so it is easier to get a feel of what tubes synergize well with your system. Scrolling a few post above this, you will find my experienced by swapping the tubes to NOS too early (because I am too excited to do so!).

Buckle up! You will be taken for a loooong blissful ride!

Cheers!

Congratulations Saint,
.
As mentioned previously by Abe, you are in for a great ride.
.
Do be patient and thoroughly break in the stock tubes before playing around with tube rolling. I think you are looking at more like 200 hours to get to the point that they have completely settled in. You will be quite surprised how much the sound improves during break-in. Also try to change out only one position at a time and live with that change for a while. Resist the urge to change several positions quickly. You really want to know what effect and change each tube/position yields.
.
There is also a lot to be said for really getting to know the sound of the unit and the stock tubes before you start creating a new sound.
.

In my system I have found that in the line stage side the Mullard EL 37 - Philips Miniwatt / Mullard GZ 34 Miniwatt and Tungsol Black Glass Round Plate 6sn7 have been magical and well worth extra money.

I have not cranked up the phono stage as of yet so I cannot help much there.
.
Good Luck and enjoy it !
.
Larry
.