Preamp Deal of the Century

Great post Slowhand!

You are into something here. Although the Mullards are great in my Chenin (Metal GZ34), you have to remember that when Mick listened to the preamp, especially the phono, the parameters were adjusted with the conventional tubes in service.

For example, the right resistance to properly biased the JFET's etc. If you open the preamp, you will see that there are rheostat's (blue) on some junctions that their primary fuction was to "tweaked" or "optimized" a certain parameter(s) (i.e. voltage or current)to voiced out the preamp

....exactly what I meant when I posted this a few days ago

Sandro,

What are your first impressions of your new Cortese? have not heard from you. Guess you are too busy listening to post. Mick said he has 2 preamps to do and then he will build mine. Yahoo!

Slowhand ,Sounds like your waits almost over!I put all the stock tubes back in my Chardonnay last night,they sound very good,but i still prefer my NOS tubes,but if i had to live with the stock tubes i would still be very happy!

Slowhand, I believe that one of the two preamps Mick is doing now is mine. I can barely stand the wait. I started this process many months ago. Hope it is worth it.

Hi Slowhand,Hi All,
yes, you're right, I 'm too busy to listening . I have to tell you that I still cannot say that I like it more than the "old " ARC LS5 mk2 GNSC ref. mod, Siemens 7308s outfitted with. Both are great, the Cortese doesn't "kill" my ARC at all.Consider that I liked my ls 5 more than a REF 2 mk2 and that the Cortese is 200 hours old.
I need a bit longer time ,my impression now is that my ls5 is a bit more on the romantic side than the Cortese, where this one has a little better dynamic. Soundstaging is large and deep with both units,there is a lot of air between performers.Music flows with easy,I often find myself listening to the music rather than to the pre's differences. What I mean is that these two pre's anyway are showing the features peculiar to what a great pre must have. No trouble at all in bass, mids and highs, only little different tastes.
The phono section is awesome to my ears, but I have few hours(10/15)on it .My early pre phono was an ARC sp11 mk2 with nos Amperex 6922s. The only tube rolling I'm going to get is just the two 6922s, infact I have two Siemens 7308s to try.
The long waiting is well worth, this is one of the best pre you can get, not only for the moneys. It also looks a lot better than on the pics and is dead silent.
Let us know when you'll get yours.
Sorry for my limited English.
Sandro