Did you guys consider grounding (hum) with regards to separates? The Supratek is a two box solution so having a separate power supply as the main advantage of "separates" is not really 100% accurate when you compare the Suprateks to an independent phono preamps.
With all due respect, I do not subscribe to the theory of separates is always better. To me, it all depends on how good the circuit design was executed. On my Chenin, I can crank up my volume pot with the gain pot on both channels max in the phono section and can barely hear a sound from my active speakers. With separates, doing the same exercise, will produce humm and hiss when volume pot is at 80% or more, at least in my experience because there is always some imbalance when SUT is being use.
As for tweakers like us having separates, then I understand the desire. But one thing for sure, it also creates paranoias like "Do I have the correct SUT?", "What about the interconnects between the SUT and preamp?" and so on.
Just a thought, the Supratek phono section is like "free" or a steal on the Chenins. In my case, I virtually paid <$500 for the phono section when I bought my preamp as compared to the linestage only version! IMHO, for $500 which was the price difference between linestage only and the full function when I ordered my unit, you will not find an MC phono preamp in the market today that is tube rectified, tube regulated, hybrid (low noise FET) input with tube output that has independent variable gain adjustments for each channel(ala dual-mono) to compensate for using non-matched tube pair(and overall gain balance between L&R channel) and sounds like or close to the Supratek's. I could be wrong but is there one that I might not be aware of?
With all due respect, I do not subscribe to the theory of separates is always better. To me, it all depends on how good the circuit design was executed. On my Chenin, I can crank up my volume pot with the gain pot on both channels max in the phono section and can barely hear a sound from my active speakers. With separates, doing the same exercise, will produce humm and hiss when volume pot is at 80% or more, at least in my experience because there is always some imbalance when SUT is being use.
As for tweakers like us having separates, then I understand the desire. But one thing for sure, it also creates paranoias like "Do I have the correct SUT?", "What about the interconnects between the SUT and preamp?" and so on.
Just a thought, the Supratek phono section is like "free" or a steal on the Chenins. In my case, I virtually paid <$500 for the phono section when I bought my preamp as compared to the linestage only version! IMHO, for $500 which was the price difference between linestage only and the full function when I ordered my unit, you will not find an MC phono preamp in the market today that is tube rectified, tube regulated, hybrid (low noise FET) input with tube output that has independent variable gain adjustments for each channel(ala dual-mono) to compensate for using non-matched tube pair(and overall gain balance between L&R channel) and sounds like or close to the Supratek's. I could be wrong but is there one that I might not be aware of?