Preamp Deal of the Century

Hi Guys,

It is tough to pull myself away from the Cortese. It is sounding better everyday. I have about 50 hours on the line stage, less on the phono stage. Now that I figured out the gain swtches, it sounds fantastic. I do not recommend playing in the lo gain position. No life to the music. With the toggles in the hi gain and the rear gain 1 notch down the sound is very dynamic (even at low volume). I really like this because I can listen at low volume and still feel all the power of the bass and the inner details of the music. I plan on doing a lot of listening to LP this weekend. I can already tell the phono stage is going to be great! I plan on comparing the Cortese to the Syrah this weekend, before I sell my Syrah. I will let you know my thoughts on the comparison. I have a CD by Mino Cinelu. He is a French percussionist. This CD is extremely dynamic and will really test your system. Mino plays many percussion instruments. On one song he is playing a udu and the sheer depth of the sound just shook the room! I cannot recommend the CD highly enough. I use it to test all new equipment that enters my system. Well, I gotta get back to listening. I waited close to a year for this and it was well worth the wait!!

Ecclectique,
My Grange was ordered 11/04 and arrived 5/05 almost 7 months to the day. It was a custom built unit. I don't know the circumstances of Larry's situation but it does sound rather unusual. Email Mick and see what the lead time is right now. Having owned the Grange now for 6 months, in retrospect, a year's wait would have been worth it for me.

I've been waiting since January '05 not '04 it is coming up on one year.

Hi Gang. I'm waiting on a custom stepped gain pot[vishay resistors]to install in the syrah even though I will lose the remote function, I will also install it in the cortese for comparison. If I order the grange, either the syrah or the cortese will have to go first.Though I am hoping the new pot will bring the sound of the syrah closer to the sound of the cortese.

Regarding high versus low gain position, it's unwise to make blanket statements on which is better. It ultimately depends on your source and amp's gain. For example, if your amp's gain is very low, you are better served with your Supratek set to high gain. Otherwise, the sound is lifeless as Slowhand experienced. But if your amp has relatively high gain, your Supratek will sound more transparent set to low gain, almost in effect acting more as a passive then active linestage.