Hi, I thought that semi-review would get some reaction. Bwhite, how did you know I had had a Supratek Syrah? I have had four exceptional preamps in my system, actually five. The Syrah was the first two. First I had a stock unit which sounded great, especially the phono, but ultimately one chanel went bad. It was too costly to return it to Mick, so I sent it to John Tucker at Exemplar. He had already built several amps for me which were parafeed using the 6N1P. He repaired my Syrah and ultimately convinced me to converting it to parafeed with an active load on the 6N1Ps substituted for the 6SN7s. It was startlingly better, more dynamic and quieter. The phono remains as was and was still the best phono I have heard.
Number three was Tucker's full blown Exemplar line stage which was identical to that installed in my Syrah except with the exceptional ss power supply John has developed. It had a better sound stage and better bass extention. You can see it at http://www.exemplaraudio.com/EA-1.ht
Next came version one of the H-Cat P12, which had the sound staging advantage in spades, but the Exemplar, while sounding more like tubes, was more musical or pleasing. But this H-Cat did not like my tube dac. It was called back as was the Exemplar for changes. During this period I tried the Seamless Big Dog passive transformer/pot. After extensive breakin, it was more dynamic than any prior passive unit I have tried, including the Silver Rock, and of course was neutral in sound.
Then the H-Cat returned in triumph. After about two weeks, it was king of the hill as I wrote. The Exemplar is back and breaking in, but I really have no expectation that it can outperform the H-Cat.
I use an Accustic Arts transport, a Zanden 5000 dac, a Marantz SA-1 sacd player, Siltech G5 cables, Omega Mikro ac cords plus some Elrod EPS3s, a Sound Application EX12S, and Beauhorns. The amps are 2A3 parafeed, active loaded Exemplar mono blocks using the TJ300B 2.5 v. tubes. I also have Epps 7' tall subs driven by a Citation 7.1 amp.
