Preamp Deal of the Century

Bill, Don't take this the wrong way and there is no malevolence intended here but the MMF-7 and Eroica are hardly worth all of the effort you are expending here vis a vis the preamp project. This is a very average tonearm with a very average cartridge. You will never realize the full sonic benefits of a good phonostage/linestage or a good preamplifer (with phonostage)with them. Now if you intend to upgrade to a better turntable/tonearm/cartridge in the near future, then I would say go ahead with your Supratek quest. Again, this is my take on the issue. I owned an MMF-7 a few years back and for the money it's tough to beat but in the context of the other equipment you're considering, it's out of place.
I hope there are no hard feelings.

Aurel: FWIW, the Cabernet that I have appears to be capacitor coupled on the output stage instead of transformer coupled like the cortese/chenin. There are at least 2 large capacitors in it. Have to be careful when turning it off because of the caps discharge. Turn off the power amp first, but this is recommended for all high-end gear anyway. No one that I am aware of has had their gear damaged by their supratek preamps. My Cabernet has been powered on continuosly (24/7)for 6 weeks with nothing more that an occaisonal (couple times a day) low-level tic or pop from a tube, which is normal in tube gear. I doubt a Supratek preamp would pose a threat to your existing equipment...but you do seem rather risk averse. Might want to email Mick about your concerns.

Jay461: swap signal tubes left-right to see of the crackle follows the tubes. Do the same with the regulator tubes, just to be sure. It really sounds like the signal tubes to me.

Dsiggia: Might try rolling the regulators and rectifiers also. The tung-sol 5881 is ok, but you can do better. Might want to try the 6f6g, kt-66, or 6l6g. You should give the ken-rad 6sn7gt a try also.

Hi Wc65mustang, No insult taken whatsoever. In fact, I very much appreciate your comments. And my questions about the MMF 7 come from the fact that I suspected what you said about it. This is why I initially asked about the linestage only supratek, but all the comments about the phone stage have me reconsidering what I might do. If the Chenin would be a significant improvement in the line stage over my modified AN M2, then I could go with that and later sell my MMF 7 & Audion phono stage to purchase a turntable worthy of the Supratek.

Like you said, I need to email Mick. Because if the Sauvignon line is a lot better than the line in the Chenin, then I'm tempted to go with it and save the phono upgrades for a later time.

I sincerely appreciate your feedback; it's been very helpful. I'm pretty set with the AN Quest Silvers and the Zingali speakers, but everything else is subject to upgrades. So if I may impose further, do you have any recommendations or suggestions about a Turntable that would go well with the Supratek?

Again, I really appreciate your honest assessment. Anything else wouldn't really be helpful.

Bill