Preamp Deal of the Century

As I am nearing the end of the originally promised 3 month delivery window, I contacted Mick for an update. As expected, the chrome plating 'bling" is causing a delay of 6 weeks. A real hand on heart test of human patience..... Gotta have the bling, though. The unit (Standard Grange Dual LS) will be front and center in our living room. Will report back with updates. In the meantime, continuing to enjoy my excellent Chardonnay LS, now with LinLai Elite 6SN7s - very nice. 

I found this awesome thread the first time just before Mick went on his preamp building hiatus. I was ready to pull the trigger back then and was very disappointed to learn he quit the business. However, persistence paid off and in 2020 I ordered my Chardonnay 3 in wood/chrome. I run it with a EML 274B Mesh, Gold Lion KT66, and Linlai Elite 6SN7. I just love it and after a bigger than expected annual bonus, I ordered his new Grange, but as a Line Stage only since I don't have a turntable set-up. Since the huge regular Grange chassis is not needed, he builds this Grange LS into the Cabernet chassis. I am 2.5 months into my supposed 3 month order time, but am not holding my breath... I know it will take probably 4 months. This time I ordered the preamp in black/chrome and already have a new pair of EML 300B Mesh waiting for them. Also got a pair of Gold Lion 300Bs as my daily work horses. As soon as the Grange is here I will put up my beautiful Chardonnay for sale (I think... maybe I just keep it - it is like a good red wine after all). Mick is a master at his trade and you simply cannot go wrong with his preamps. Did I really need to upgrade? Probably not, but we are all a bit crazy, ain't we? Totally excited to hear my first ever 300B preamp.

Thanks. Mick also recommended the EML 45s. If the 300B are 'too much', I am sure I won't have any problems selling them. The EML dealer lives very close to me (in the Napa Valley), so it would be easy to pick up a pair of those. But first I need that preamp ... and it will take more patience.

I ordered a black/chrome unit without tubes with a few minor modifications. My Chardonnay was wood/chrome and was beautiful. I figured I try something different this time... but really, they are all gorgeous. I will report on sonics once preamp and new EML 300B and EML 45 tubes are a bit broken in. xmas is coming early, for sure.

@ duramax747

You have still not unpacked? Wow, this would be killing me!

Report please...!

@highstream I did not order the Grange Signature LS since I also did not want to deal with a new type of driver tube (have many 6SN7s). I ordered the ’regular’ Grange LS which is really a ’dual’, allowing to use the 300B or 6SN7 circuits. I asked Mick if both can be made with balanced outputs, but he did not commit. Let’s see.... However, if one is balanced (the 300B/45 circuit) and the 6SN7 only has singled ended outputs, it makes switching back and forth a bit more work. I will be happy either way, but the ability to use the same cable would be awesome.

My Chardonnay 3 may function differently (not sure), but I realized that when the gain knob is active, I get noise/hum between 8am and 4pm on the dial, pretty much the entire spectrum except for the very beginning and very end. Hence, I decided to turn off the gain function and instead reduced output by my Hifi Rose RS150B to 500mv. Quiet as a church mouse now, but still have more than enough gain to play loud music.

Happy to report my Grange LS will arrive on Monday via DHL. Ordered beginning of Feb - a real test of patience. I put up my current Chardonnay v3 for sale and it went within 12 hours, a real testament to the strength of the brand Mick has built. I am so excited… will have to ‘work from home’ on Monday…. 

@aldnorab  yeah, I know, maybe I should have waited, but Mick said he listened to it for a week hooked up to a 300B SET Amp he built for himself and reported it sounded great with no noise/hum. I guess I believed him... My buyer was very happy, quote: "The tonality is jaw dropping".

@luisma31 what's an EML 45 XL tube? I see the regular 45, the mesh, and the globe, but no XL. I have both the EML 45 mesh and the 300B mesh as well as a EML 274B Mesh rectifier. 

My unit got stuck in customs in Perth and is just now leaving :(... Continued patience required.

My Grange arrived today, but sadly not all is well. For starters, despite many emails over the course of the 7 month wait, Mick sent a wood version instead of the black unit I ordered. I have no idea how that could have gotten lost as I even put '1 Black Supratek Grange' into each PayPal payment description I sent. I am wondering if he is trying to build too many these days and loses track of his customer's orders. The unit also has a loose or defective power tube socket as one of the 300Bs is very, very wobbly once inserted. Very odd for a brand new preamp. For me, that's now two for two as my original Chardonnay arrived with one channel not producing sound. I ended up having to open the preamp and re-solder a cable to a XLR socket tab. I hope others have more luck. I have been so distressed that critical listening has not yet happened. 

I contacted Mick and asked for a replacement black unit, holding on to this one in the meantime. No response yet and god knows how long that will take. The good news is that sound is not impacted at all and the preamp functions as intended.

Btw, the picture of the black unit above shows the 'full' Grange including phono. I ordered a line stage only, no phono. Mick builds this into the Cabernet chassis, hence it is smaller than the full Grange. Less tubes, too, obviously. 

After one day of listening to the dual Grange Linestage (using the DHT output, not the 6SN7 output) with 6 out 7 tubes being new and the unit obviously not broken in, either, I can only say ’wow’. If this is any indication of what’s to come, I can only tip my hat to Mick (despite the color issue...). My system sounds out of this world - tonality, spaciousness, texture, detail, and 3-dimensionality are far above and beyond anything I have heard in my living room. This is definitely a step up from the Chardonnay and I thought that preamp was amazing. I will play with the 6SN7 output over the next few days and compare. My system is fully balanced so it is a drag the 6SN7 outputs are only RCA, hence it is not that easy to swap back and forth. I had asked Mick if all outputs could be XLR, but he said that’s a major re-design. I am currently using EML 300B Mesh, EML 274B Mesh, Gold Lion KT 66, and Linlai 6SN7 Elite tubes. Also, for full transparency, I use the Revelation Audio umbilical power cord. I have other new and NOS rectifiers (Sophia Electric Mesh, USAF 596 with adapter from Woo Audio), 300Bs, NOS 5881, and 45s I will try out over the next few days and report back. I hope to hear from Mick tomorrow.

I heard back from Mick. He says he is sorry about the color mix-up, but in his humble opinion wood looks better anyhow and that I should not worry about the socket being a bit loose..... Hmmm. I guess we are all blessed to be able to buy from him. I have to consider my next move, maybe a PayPal dispute will wake him up. 

It's both. Right side is perfectly fine and tight, left side has a loose socket (I am sure I can tighten that), but the tube wobbles in the socket.

Mick is doing the right thing and building me the black unit I ordered ASAP. He asked me to ship the current wood version Grange to his service guy in NC to have the socket swapped out. It will then be sold. If anybody wants pictures, let me know. The wood unit looks and sounds amazing, it is just not what I ordered 7 months ago...