Counterpoint SA-3.1 and 5.1

05-23-10: Bigshot
Man I love these sites. Albert.

Wish is was my site :^). I get to cover shows for Audiogon but no closer connection than that.

Reading my comments from nearly a decade ago is fun. I must say that based on that time, the advice I gave still stands today.

Mike Elliott is someone I never get to speak to these days but engineers and designers like he, Steve McCormack and Richard Vandersteen made deep ridges in my audio experience pool and will forever effect the way I view the business.

Some things remain basic audio truth, it can only get so good and some of these guys have been working at the craft for a very long time.

Ever try working on a Counterpoint SA-5000 or a SA-220 and doing some of the modifications yourself that Mike offers? The parts are not cheap and it will take you soem time to do the modifications. I always thought that Mike was expensive until I tried to do tem myself, very time consuming. Plus Mike offers a warranty.

I love the SA-5.1 and actually own 3 of them. The first one I bought for about $1100. Later I got two more for a lot less. To my ear, these are the prettiest pre-amps, very "liquid" and transparent.

But there is a problem. Mike Elliot's equipment, made during the Counterpoint years, is not stable. It is constantly breaking down. I have had two repaired by Mike and another repaired by Harry Colby, and now a power supply is down. Its frustrating to have equipment that is not reliable, no matter how good it sounds. Because of these problems I got fed up and I tried to switch to solid state, but couldn't find anything I like as well.

By the way, way back when I considered buying a pair of Counterpoint amps but Dave Wasserman owner of Audio Exchange in NYC told me not to because they were so unstable, they would not work for long. I do think this is why Counterpoint went out of business and Mike started a new company.

Mike .... I love your stuff. How about doing mods to make it more stable and giving your upgraded gear a 20 year warranty like Bryston does?

Hi Elia0224,

Do you have stability problems with a stock unit, or an upgraded unit? In fact I expect that 20 year old unit without any touch can have problems, especially a tube unit. but if it is an upgraded unit at Mike Eliott, than it is another topic.

Does anyone have the full tube complement for the SA 5.1? I'm thinking of pulling it out of storage and hooking it back up. Since Altavista shut there doors, I cannot find any info on these preamps! Thanks