Preamp Deal of the Century

Ella4ever,
.
I will second & 3rd Slowhand's approval. I have had mine Supratek for 1.5 years and it was a year old when I bought it and have not had one single hiccup at any point.
.
Getting a Supratek is a no brainer. If you have a problem, Mick will be right there for you. He is as honest and caring as the day is long.
.
If your budget can handle it, go for a Cortese and you will be done for life (I am guessing that your Cortese will out live you). The Cortese will allow you to get into vinyl one day and will make for an easier re-sale if that day (and it won't) should ever come.
.
Getting a Supratek was one of the best decisions I have made to date (that and a getting a Teres table).
.

Hello Kevin. Yes, Arc equipment is extremely well built and the product support is top notch, I repair or update all of my own equipment and have consulted with Leonard,the chief service manager at ARC on more than one occassion. He is a true gentleman and always very helpful and accomodating with respect to recommendations or technical advice. I am certain Mick at supratek would be as well. I have both the syrah and the cortese preamps and have never experienced a problem with mine.The build quality is top shelf. I acquired the cortese from a guy who was a 2nd owner. There were a few issues with the cortese as someone had retubed it with a bunch of tired old nos tubes. It was just dreadful sounding when it arrived and I am certain the poor guy surely must of wondered what all the fuss was about after listening to it as it wasn't remotely close to sounding like music! The mullard gz37 rectifier was pretty much toast and tested a little over 80% on one half of the wave and 90% on the other. The 6j5's [single triode]line gain tubes were so far from matched and barely made it past acceptable level on my tube tester as both tested under 80% emmision. The supratek or any other high resolution preamp with high gain is going to be very sensitive to tubes and I just don't understand why anyone would experiment with tired tubes. The suprateks can be voiced in different flavours depending on the gain stage tube of choice. For a well balanced warmer tone, one could choose the kenrad or perhaps the rca grey glass 6sn7.The tungsol round is a little more neutral, still warm and liquid sounding with a tighter bass reponse. The better nos sylvania's are somewhat more transparent with a leaner bass range than most of the other nos tubes. What I am fumbling around trying to say here is: The suprateks are very versatile regarding voicing and synergy with other components. And much like a fine musical instrument... they need to be fine tuned to your room, your ear and your associate gear. I still admire the phono section of my Sp-10 mk 2... the supratek is in a whole higher league. Furethermore... the supratek has the higher resale value ratio at this particular juncture.I can fully understand and appreciate if ones decision is to stay with the older and established firms in the industry because of reliabilty or service concerns. I have no such concerns with supratek as it is hand built to the highest standards,a simple straight forward topology with point to point wiring,top shelf passive parts and an architecture that is a work of art. PS: Regarding the old established firms? I much preferr the sound of the conrad johnson ART over the ARC reference. My 2 cents worth.

A little anecdote to back up Cello’s point about Mick’s caring and honesty. Mick agreed with my decision to buy a Denon 103R to replace my MM cartridge in order to use the phono section of the Chenin. The Denon didn’t fit my Linn Ekos. Mick bought my Denon at the price I paid for it. Do you need anything else to have a picture of the guy? Regards, Pablo.

Thanks Ethifi for the advice. There are only two toggle swictches on top of my Cabernet, one is HT bypass and the other is Mute. I did not ask for a Tape Loop in my preamp. Everything is working fine now and the sound was "Amazingly Satisfying & Musical" straight out of the box with stock tubes. The Cabernet is paired with my Plinius SA-102 poweramp driving the Harbeth M20 mini monitors.

I plugged in the smoke glass Genalux KT-66 to my Cabernet power supply unit yesterday evening..replacing the stock Sovtek tubes only, all I could say what Ecclectique said was true, I was very near to nirvana now! After 300 hours or so I will try those NU 350A's. I guess that's it, audio nirvana is reachable through Supratek for common folks like me ^_^. And thank you Slowhand for starting this wonderful thread. You have earned a place in Audigon, Sir!

Thanks Ongkaku, enjoy your Cabernet...it only gets better! That must be why Mick named his preamps after wines, they only get better with age.