Preamp Deal of the Century

Curriemt, sorry about your Cortese. There is not much I can do to help. From my experience, the Cortese is a much more solid unit and exhibits zero microphonics.

I respect Aesthetix. The IO Sig was my favorite phono stage of all I've owned. If you want my comments about the Janus please email me directly instead of in this forum.

Brian,

I'm not aware of what it is that has made you lose faith in Supratek, its probably just the fickleness of audiophilia or that you have suffered burn-out who knows? You are quite within you're rights to express these alternative views (as we all are), but you are just plain wrong about the statement that the Suprateks are somehow not hi-end.

IMHO (and with 25yrs experience of playing around with hi-fi), the Supratek Cortese and Cabernet would be placed among the BEST preamps ever created. I mean, you have people on the planet running their $130,000USD Avantegarde horns with the Supratek Cortese and loving it, if this doesn't say something about the high quality of the preamp nothing does!

I have tried passive devices and run directly to the CDP, and have not found these options to be better than my Supratek preamp. The music deadens and becomes lifeless and one dimensional when running passive. The Supratek preamp somehow picks up the signal and brings it alive, all full of clarity, emotion and realness - I can't explain it on any level of electrical theory, IT JUST DOES. There are things hidden in recordings that only the Supartek preamps seem to flesh out, the ambience of the venue, the spacial clues of the performers on a stage, the timbre, texture and long decay of instruments etc.

It's not for want of trying with passives either, as I have used the Mod Squad passive pre; Audio Synthesis Passion attenuator; D.A.C.T attenuator; and Sowter transformer pots. The direct to CDP route to me sounds a bit electronic (digitalised for want of a better word).

My initial comments about speaker quality and the hidden beauty of Supratek preamps was not meant to put anyone off-side. I was merely stating that if you have ultra hi-rez speakers you will truly know what your Suprateks are capable of. Perhaps those of you running electrostats with your Suprateks might want to chime in here...

Regards,

Steve.

I can't find my owner's manual for my Chenin. Does the Chenin have two sets of amplifier inputs for bi-amping? Bob

Hi Steve, Okay... please don't take what I wrote as being down on Supratek per se'. A few posts above, I wrote to Baranyi that one must spend A LOT of money to do better than the Supratek.

I did not state that the Supratek wasn't "high-end". I asked for you to by-pass the Supratek and run your source direct to the amp. That is the only way you will ever know what the Supratek REALLY does to the music.... and until you have tried it, everything you say about it is absolutely meaningless. Sorry. There is no other way to really understand what is going on until you elimiate what it does.

Running direct to the amp means NO ATTENUATION. Use Bolero by Ravel to do the test because it starts off very quiet and gradually becomes louder. You can stop the track before it gets too loud.

I used an Aesthetix IO Signature phono preamp set to 50db running direct to my amp. I imagine this test will work with any source... But... CD's always seem to sound more musical through a Supratek regardless. I guess the colorations really help that format. The real test is pure analog running direct. That will show you the truth.

Having heard what the Supratek did to the music, I immediately went to a passive design and it was terrible! Killed dynamics, clipped harmonics, and just destroyed the sound. Replacing the passive with the Cortese made things much better but... I could still hear the colorations of the Supratek.

I have since tried this with many preamps and they all diminish the source signal consierably.

Yes.. I agree 100% the Supratek brings a lively & emotional feeling to the music via coloration - but to me it does lack transparency. To justify that statement, let me just say I know a few Supratek owners who have changed the stock attenuators to DACT attenuators and report greater transparency.

I guess what set me off is the suggestion that better speakers would allow us to hear more of the Supratek's inner detail because I wanted to hear less of the Supratek' effects (both positive and negative) and more of the music.

Even though I love the Supratek, I have gripes with the design and implementation. Maybe I HAVE grown frustrated.

I know the Supratek is good but I think it can be better with a few somewhat minor changes.

Baranyi,

My Chenin's lay-out(back) goes like this:

From Left To Right
Phono(input1), Input2, Input3, Input4, REC(Tape), Play(Tape), Out1, Out2, Gain (Independent Channel Balance on Mine), and Power.

Enjoy