Preamp Deal of the Century

Another vote for the Chenin here!

Unless you have a super mega over to the max God smiled on it separate phono preamp already, why would one buy a Chardonnay instead of the Chenin if the only reason is that "you are not into vinyl" yet for a price difference of <$500 always intrigues me?

I have been using the Chenin for almost Three years now. The phono section for low/mid output MC (2.5 mV and below)is amazingly quiet and sounds very-very good. I have some other phono preamps use for MM and coupled with an SUT, it does not have the vivid presentation I can get from the Chenin even on modest MC carts. It will take a lot of system matching before the SUT/MM phono combo approaches what the Chenin phono section delivers in my experience.

Let's paint a scenario here.......

Supratek Chardonnay, Linestage only Price:$2000

Supratek Chenin, Linestage (identical in every way to the Chardonnay), with Phono (Low noise Hybrid FET inputs, with two all tube gain stages, individual gain adjustments per channel with preset (four)impedance loading settings), capable of amplifying cartridge output as low as 0.1 mV without the use of external SUT's. Price: $2400

Both are two box system that are tube rectified (5AR4/GZ34) and tube regulated (5881, KT-66, etc.).

What will you buy? Honestly?

Well $400 is a big chunk of money (for me) but assuming that you use the preamp for a year and then decided to sell it. I believe you can get better deal with the Chenin don't you think? Besides, the price difference comes up to a whopping $1.095 per day for a year between the two. If you use it for two years then its ~$0.55, and in three years...well, you get the picture!

Worried that the phono section will just "eat" tubes when not in use? I suggest to turn the gain pots of the phono section all the way down when not in use and get a set of tubes, the cheapest 6922 and 6c4 tubes you can source, as back up. That should set you back for about $50 max including shipping. These tubes together with the tubes that comes with the preamp should be good for the next, say, 3 1/2 years or so conservatively.

As they say, "you know a good deal if you see one"!

Believe me, this is....IT!

i must preface all my following comments by saying that my system has been “down” since i placed the deposit for my malbecs in june of 2006. my system has been through some major changes. i sold my art audio carissa (16 watt SET) which I was using with a pair of gershman avant garde rx-20 speakers. the gershman’s are fabulous speakers, but they do not lend themselves to tube amplification. previous to the carissa, my amplifier merry-go-round consisted of a pair of cary audio slm-200 monoblocks, plinius sa-102, aes sixpacs, aragon palladium II monoblocks, and an aragon 8008BB.

after selling the carissa, i found a race horse deal on a pair of von schweikert dB99 SE speakers (my "affordable" dream speakers). so, i sold the gershman's and purchased the dB99 SE. since i had sold the carissa, i had no "high-end" amplifier, so i made due by powering the dB99 SE with a denon AVR-3806 receiver.

i received the email from mick on 12-11-06 and sent the money later that day. the malbecs shipped on 12-18-06. the malbecs were separated in shipping and one arrived on 12-20-06 and the other on 12-21-06. unfortunately, one of the malbecs had an intermittent hiss/pop. i shipped it to kevin covi in new york for repair on 12-29-06. kevin informed me that the malbec had a bad screen resistor and he was able to quickly repair the malbec. kevin shipped the malbec on 1-08-07 i received the repaired malbec on 1-11-07.

i’ve tried to allow the mablecs to burn in some over the weekend. i received two quads of EH EL34 tubes on friday. the malbecs have been playing non-stop for close the 48 hours. the fit and finish is quintessential supratek (first rate). though separated by almost 2 years, the chrome/piano black mablecs perfectly match my chardonnay. but you haven't read this far to hear what they look like.

the malbecs allow for adjustment of damping factor (left front knob), volume (right front knob), and negative feedback (on back) (all of which you can adjust "on the fly"). the chardonnay allows for multiple levels of gain adjustment. the dB99 SE also allows for adjustment of the bass level and ambience tweeter level. so, as you can see, my system is rife for fiddling and tweaking. i'm still toying around though i feel i've found a good balance. some more fine tuning will be necessary, obviously.

in my listening sessions, i played several CD's. among them, tool: 10,00 days, tweaker: 2 a.m. wakeup call, john butler trio: sunset by the sea, pink floyd: dark side of the moon. with the exception of the john butler trio CD, i have listened to these CD's probably 20+ times or more. cliched or not, it is still the truth that i am hearing things on these CD's that i've never heard before. layers have been peeled away to reveal subtle nuances and sounds that i never realized were there before. sure there had always been there hiding in the background, muddled by all the other instruments. now, they are more forward and present within the soundstage. there is more space between instruments and they can be easily located within the soundstage rather than just a wall of sound being thrown up at you.

the music flows out of the speakers with amazing dynamics and liquidity. the soundstage is centrally locked and very focused. the soundstage extends in all directions from the speaker though it's outward extension isn't as wide as it's height or depth. the sound is decidedly supratek. very musical. very alive. very different. the malbecs sound nothing like my cary audio amps, which were very syrupy and sweet. the cary's were excellent amplifiers, but the bass presentation was somewhat sluggish on my gershman's. the malbecs haven't exhibited much of tube romanticism that i've heard in other tube amplifiers. that is to say, they are not warm or sluggish. they are slightly more forward and very resolving, but not at the expense of being lean. when cranked beyond sane levels, there is no hint of compression. the music maintains it's texture and coherency even while it's running you out of the room.

praise without criticism is worthless in my opinion. the only fault i can find in the malbecs is a buzzing sound that comes from the tweeter. the buzz appears to be inversely coupled to the amount of negative feedback selected. the less negative feedback, the louder the buzz. this buzz is not mechanical noise inside the amp. the amp chassis is dead silent. granted, the buzz could be a function of the uber-cheap cables i'm currently using and/or the high efficiency of my speakers and/or the distance between myself and the speaker. it's only noticeable on quiet passages, but i find that it does detract from the listening experience even at low levels. hopefully, i will be able to resolve the buzzing issue i have in the coming months.

though my impressions are cursory, i really believe the malbecs are something special and (buzzing aside) i cannot see myself purchasing another amplifier. i guess if i had to make a comparison, the malbecs sound like they took the best attributes of the carissa and the plinius amplifiers i had previously owned. anywho...i hope this little micro-review is somewhat beneficial to those of you looking to purchase the malbecs.

my system consists of:

supratek chardonnay
supratek malbec monoblocks
von schweikert dB99 SE
47 labs shigaraki transport
47 labs shigaraki DAC
pure power battery power supply
exactpower EP-15A
purist audio design musaeus IC (DAC to chardonnay)
purist audio design musaeus PC (EP-15A to outlet, chardonnay to EP-15A, malbec to EP-15A)
signal cable classic speaker cables
mish-mosh of other crappy cables (used between DAC and transport / chardonnay and malbec)

Thank you for the first review of the Malbec, Kgturner.
Out of curiosity, how do they compare to the AES Sixpacs you previously owned?

the sixpacs are effectively a cary amplifier so they exhibit much of the same sonic characteristics as other cary amps. syrupy is the best way i can describe it. the malbecs are much more dynamic by comparison. of course, it's hard to make an accurate comparison as all my other amps were used on the gershman speakers while i'm using the malbecs on a new and relatively unfamiliar speaker (dB99 SE).

Kgturner, have you tried with the KT88s? Do you get the buzzing with KT88 also?