Preamp Deal of the Century

Great thread guys, very informative, friendly and with lots of great info and advice. Took me 5 nights to read through it all!!

l took the plunge today and sent of my deposit for a Cabernet linestage. l am fortunate to be in the 1% of Aussies that has bought one of Mick's amps, its remarkable how nearly all of them find their way to appreciative audio nuts elsewhere around the world.

Jazzdude > How are you getting on with your Cabernet, how has it settled in to your system? Tried any tube rolling?

Cheers Simon

Mondie - Keep in mind that I use WE 101D's instead of TJ 101D's. They are not interchangeable because there require different tube sockets. The cabernet is slightly fuller than the sauvignon. Beginning in the lower midrange and continuing on down. There is pronounced bass response from about 90hz on down. It is not obnoxious but it is noticeable. I have excised this from my system through other means. I prefer to focus on the midrange.

One area where the cabernet improves on the sauvignon is inner detail and neuance, esp in midrange and upper bass.

The cabernet is surprisingly quiet for a design using DHT tubes. There is a little hum evident when I first power on the preamp, but that is all. There is a capacitor discharge when you turn off the preamp. This discharge isn't present in my sauvignon. People with high-effiency systems will need to be careful.

No tube-rolling yet. I am still getting used to it. I've only put a couple hundred hours on it. The tube compliment I use is the same as before with the WE 101D's added. Although I am happy with the 6L6WGA, there are a couple of tubes I want to try as regulators. One of those is the GEC KT-66. I am also going to pop in the RCA 6SN7GT/VT-231 grey-glass.

Thanks Jazzdude.

Did you order your Cabernet with NOS WE 101D's? Have you past experience with these valves and knew they were superior to the TJ's?

l am really looking forward to getting this amp. As l have upgraded my system the shortcomings of my ARC SP-9 have become more and more evident.

Cheers

i intended to use WE 101D's all along. however, i did not know that they were incompatible with the sockets used by the tj 101d's. we 101d's use uv-4 sockets. they are hard to find and normally expensive when you do. there are a very few current production uv-4 sockets. some of the best are pulls from old western electric amps. i supplied Mick with the sockets that are used in my cabernet. these sockets normally sell for $200-300 ea on ebay. but i managed to picked up some old WE bakelite sockets in excellent condition from a local tube collector.

i have never listened to the tj 101d's but by reputation the we 101d's are said to be superior. the tj's are based upon the WE tubes. the WE 101D's were manufactured under license in Canada, Australia, and I believe the UK also. So there are a few working substitutes to be had. I know in Australia they were manufactured as the STC 4101D. There are a few other variant model numbers as well but they are all basically the same tube.

there are a very few interesting posts on AA by Dowdy Lama and Gordon Rankin regarding the WE 101D and TJ 101D. Search through all forums.

Hi folks:

Just curious whether using the Dynavector high output moving coil (2.8mV) cart is a poor match for the Chenin or Cortese phono stages. The Supratek website states the phono stages are specifically designed for very low output MC's. Perhaps that essentially excludes the use of the Dynavector 20XH. I'm not married to this particular Dynavector model, but it's what I have in my system now. Since I'm on the hunt for a preamp change, going in the Supratek direction may also require me to adjust other components. However, as a mostly vinyl listener, the phono stage praises are surely alluring.

One other question or point. I assume the Suprateks have attracted many of you for the phono stages. If you are at all like me, I enjoy quite a few of the original jazz, blues, rock mono recordings. I note no mono/stereo capability with the Suprateks and perhaps that's just a compromise for enjoying the quality of the preamp, I don't know.