Preamp Deal of the Century

Chardonnay is linestage of Chenin (formerly Syrah), Sauvignon is linestage of Cortese, and Cabernet is linestage of Grange.

I am familiar with the Audion but more importantly have not heard it with your gear which is really the key in evaluating any component. That being said I come back to my previous points regarding shorter signal path, etc. and the advantages of them.

How do the Chenin and Cortese compare you asked? I guess my thought here is to contact Mick and get the scoop from him. Initially I was going to buy a Cortese but after numerous emails and discussions with him decided to have a Grange built; it matched up with my other components better than the Cortese. You only live once I suppose but we all live on budgets. One of the features that comes with Mick's preamps is they will sell quickly and without much $$$$$ loss, if any, should you need to move it. I can't recall seeing any Supratek preamp lasting more than a few days on Audiogon. Take your time and make the right decision.

Crackling sound on my right speaker. I have run my Chardonnay for about 50hrs. with the stock tubes (EH/Sovtek) supplied by Mick. When I turn down the volume with or without playing a CD I can hear crackling and hiss noise from the right channel even as far as 7ft.

As suggested by Mick I have the tubes with the white mark placed in the left channel and the other on the right.

I have the pre set up just as in the manual and the gain switch is at 5th position.

I'm using the TEAC VRDS 10 as a transport hooked up to the tubed Audionote DAC 3.1x signature (not balanced)with the MC352 power amp.

Overall I'm not too happy with the sound. Can you'll give me some input? Thanks.

Hi Bill,

Just checked in and saw your post. Thanks. I know the M2 is better than the M1, but I didn't think there was that much difference. Now the M3 was another story. Remember, it could just be my ears. But I think the Supratek is better. I'd go with the Supratek over an M3, because as noted ad nauseum, the phono stage is SO GOOD. For vinyl, and digital from what I've read (not being a big digital fan I really don't care, so I can't comment on that aspect of it) I'd go with the Sauvignon in a minute. I'd bet he phono stage is that much better than the Audion, but again, I have not heard it so can't really comment. Now remember, I am a BIG FAN of AN products.

So that means I have some sad news. I have decided to sell my SyrTese. I need the funds to finance building a set of AN Kit 3 speakers and I can live without a seperate pre while I get it done. Wc65mustang said it very well:

You only live once I suppose but we all live on budgets. One of the features that comes with Mick's preamps is they will sell quickly and without much $$$$$ loss, if any, should you need to move it

This was a tough decision, and mainly a financial one becuse I am on a budget. If my wife knew what some of this stuff cost.... I've been wanting to upgrade my speakers for a long time now. I guess I made the decision based on my experiences with Audio Note. I really like AN gear, even at the level I have and want to go to a higher-end all AN system. Since I want to go higher on the AN level system, I've been kind of stuck cause I can't afford 8 grand for a used set of E/SEC that show up occasionally here. So I've been talking with Brian at AN Kits and then this showed up:

Nico's Kit 3's

Talk about timing. Brian told me last week he would have the Kt 3's in stock in early Feb. So that's my next project.

But the only way I can do it is to sell the Supratek. And I am going to miss it!

After watching this thread closely for a long time, it's time for me jump in. I have been proud owner of a newer model Cortese for about 3 months. The Cortese replaced a SF Line 3SE without blinking an eye. My unit has the latest phono stage Mick introduced in 9/04. I listened to the stock tubes for about 200 hours before I started rolling some NOS tubes. I replaced the power supply tubes with a Mullard 5ar4 & Tungsol 5881's. The Line stage received a pair of black bottom RCA 6sn7's, the phone stage a pair of Tele CCa's. I didn't replace the Phillips E180f's or the Sylvania 12b4a's that are stock with the unit. When I replaced the tubes, there was an imediate improvement as I suspected there would be. These tubes were extremely transparent, very detailed, nice spacing between the instruments which made a more defined soundstage, but after about 300 hours of listening I felt the bass was too thin for me to be extremely happy with the tubes. I decided to play around with some other 6sn7's. I replaced the RCA's with a pair of Sylvania 6sn7's and these had most of the characteristics of the RCA's, bass slam was better detailed, but the music felt too forward in it's presentation. The next pair I tried was Tungsol's 6sn7's & bingo! The Tungsol's are open, detailed, natural, and the bass is strong, punchy, and tight.

Thanks to everyone on the thread for helping out so much.

My concern about Supratek...

After having red all this thread, I am convinced that the Supratek preamps (I'm interested in the Cabernet) 1) look great 2) sound great. My concern in the following : I have a $$$ directly coupled SS amp and $$$ speakers. I don't want to damage them in any way ! Usually, tube preamps are not good with amps without caps because they can have a continuous component that would destroy the speakers. As I understand, Supratek preamps have output transformers and, therefore, are 100% safe from the point of view of a DC component. But what about a tube failure or any other problem ? I like the tube sound but I'm a bit scared... Any input on this ? Do you think it is as safe and as reliable a good SS preamp ?

Thanks and best regards.