Preamp better than Cortese?

Glreno - I believe the Supratek you had was MY first Supratek and it was a horribly malfunctioning and miswired unit from the factory. That particular pre had an interesting history as it was a unit (I asked Mick to make) with several MAJOR circuit and design mods. For whatever reason, the changes/mods were not executed correctly, several blunders were made and the result was a preamp that didn't work. Mick eventually sold on Audiogon to a member who formerly owned a Wyetech Opal (I think you'll know who I mean) and in turn, that person I believe re-sold on Audiogon within a few days....

This particular unit was unique in that it was Piano Black, with Chrome top and gold knobs.

Anyhow, I feel its not exactly fair to draw any conclusion regarding the performance of a Supratek based on what one heard from the infamous "Gold Knobbed Chardonnay".

Glreno, good questions! And I agree with you.

When I ordered that preamp, I asked for it to be a single chassis unit with balanced output. These two "options" were not done right but they didn't cause a dangerous situation. No worries there.

To the best of my knowledge the faulty preamp was returned to Mick a while ago. Recently when I inquired about an upgrade of my Syrah, Mick suggested I return my preamp to him and not sell online since it too has a few factory errors. He informed me that he didn't want ANY MORE malfunctioning or mis-implemented preamps floating around out there.

Whatever the case, he seems to have learned a lesson.