Preamp Deal of the Century

I also have had very good communication and advice from both, Mick and Thom. Mick solved a minor problem with my Chenin over the internet with my technician in a couple of days, and Thom helped me with a problem with my Micro Seiki 505 even though I didn't buy a turntable from him. Impressive.
I've changed most of my system since my last post, but the Supratek! The Linn is gone and it has been replaced by a Teres 255/Micro Seiki 505/Zyx Airy 3. The Silverline Sonatas have been replaced by a pair of Coincident Total Victory. I have kept the Lamhorn/Lowther EX-4, the Wright Sound 3.5 and I bought a pair of Golden Tube 300B SE monoblocks.
If the KT-88 will sound like a SE amp, I would consider them! Best regards, Pablo.

I have Chenin, and for fun I have been rolling tubes.
I have noticed that the biggest overall difference in sound makes replacing stock 6sn7.

According to tubeworld the best 6sn7 is Mullard ECC33 military version (CV2821)
https://www.tubeworld.com/6sn7.htm
I have been looking for it for a long time.
Somebody on ebay from England is selling pair.
http://cgi.ebay.com/CV2821-ECC33-MULLARD-TUBE-VALVE-NEW-1-PC_W0QQitemZ9714276908QQcategoryZ39997QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I bought one pair form him. It was not microphonic, the biggest problem with Supratek.
If it is the best I do not know, because since I have moved to new place (small room, with crannies, scene collapsed, bass if uncontrolled).
But at previous place stock tubes sounded really bad in comparison to KenRad, Sylvania.
Someday I will move to golden room and I will appreciate it (at least I’m hoping for it).

If somebody would decide to try it (and have sound transparent room), please let me know if you could hear the difference and if it was worth the asking price.

Hi Sorlowski,

I switch between Sylvania,RCA grey glass & Tung Sol 'mouse ear' 6SN7's. Tried lots of others but these are all nice in different ways.

I'm looking for a spare pair of Tung Sol 5881's, tried the EH 6L6 but they are horrible and add a grainy edge to the sound.
Wondered if anyone had tried the re-issue made in russia tung sol 5881's ????

Rgds Simon

Just received an e-mail from Mick. He says the name of the new KT-88 amp is Malbec. The amps will have a gain control which will help it match to any system and it will have a feedback control to help it match to various speakers. My Berning amp has this also. This is a nice feature as it helps control the woofer for tighter bass.

Well, I have about 60 hours on my Chardonnay now, and a couple nights ago it started sounding SUPER dynamic, real edgegy and hard.
I played with the gain controls for a while but they didn't help.
So I just turn it off and when to bed. I didn't want to start rolling tubes yet, but I suspected microphonics.
I am not sure why it would have just started after 60 hours when they should be getting better, not worse.
Anyway the next night I decided to roll the 6sn7, so I replaced the stock ones with a pair of RCA I had been using in my previous preamp, a AE3 DJH.

Well that did it, they tamed it dowm nicely, no more edgey runaway dynamics. Everything just smooth out and nice.
Now I cann't wait to roll the other tubes. I have some Golden Dragon Kt66 laying around I will try.
I know they may not be worth the effort but what the hell, they cann't be worse. Can they!!