Preamp Deal of the Century

I have been over this thread now for the past week and have decided to try it and placed an order with Mick for a Chardonnay. It should be here first week in Jan of 07. My wife is a saint and actually ordered it for me. Here are some questions I had...

1. Any thoughts on how the Chardonnay would mate to a Accuphase A50A amp
2. Thoughts on using it with a Phonomena for the analog sction ( I just acquired it so i can't part with it, has the battery pack as well and it sounds really good right now in my current set up. )
3. Have had various tube products in the past and have always been disappointed. Mainly due to the noise I am hoping that this is dead quite like everyone here has stated.

This thread I can say has been very imformative and really help me to make my choice much easier.

Thanks

thank you both for your recommendations I have emailed Mick and await his answer.

Slowhand,

No could not swing it in time....I did get the Chardonnay and so far it's been a beauty! Even running the Phonomena as the phono section I have not been disappointed. My plan is to use it for about a year and then move up to the Cortese.

yep hear you on that but I couldn't resist and got back into vinyl about 3 years ago. It's been a challenge with the wife as I have gone through a bunch of equipment and now the Suprtek. Wanted to get the chenin but couldn't swing the change in order and also the cost at this time.

I have an umbilical cord from Brad. I had him make a 1 meter for my Chardonnay and it has been in my system for about 2 weeks now. It's been breaking in and I have done some listening on the weekends, My initial response is that the music seems to be smoother overall with less glare. The back ground also seems a bit blacker. I can say also say that Brad's service was absolutley Top Notch. He was great to deal with and always kept me in the loop during the build process. No regrets on getting the cord.

I might have gotten mine prior to a price increase as I paid $219 for my 1 meter. I bought the 1 meter so when my cabinet gets built I can move the units further apart but I don't seem to be having any issues even though the PU is right next to the pre. Even at the 269 price I would say it is worth the purchase....With the amount of products that is available my money always goes to the guy that is all about service. One of the main reasons why I bought from Mick as well......both of these guys are outstanding.

Agreed my schedule has been really out of wack and I have not devoted the needed time to listen and let it break in. It's realy been a couple of Saturday afternoons for a couple of hours at a time.....but I should be able to post something a bit later.

Hello Kgturner where in mobile are you? I live in Daphne and work in Mobile.

cool good to see and know that there is another 2 channel guy in town. I work on Dauphin st. for Xante corp...are you listening to vinyl at all or just cd's

gotta be something cause he was great with me prior to the sale as well as after the sale. The transaction only took about a week and a half for me. i would give it a bit more time.

did a lot of listening this past weekend and I have to say that it's suttle. again the impression I am getting is that the transients are a bit faster with less glare throughout the musical range. Bass seemed to have a bit more slam and kick as well with the overall soundstage being wide and deep. Now it's been about 10 years since i have had a Tube pre...used to own CJ and ARC and listen to a bunch of Macs when I was a Rep working for high end shop in the DC area called Myer Emco. So some of this could be the pre itself coming into it's own......Apparently I was one of the last to get the 1 meter at a decent price I only paid $219 with shipping so I am not disappointed in the purchase. I also did not have any problems with Brad. So I am sorry to hear that others here are having some issues.

Opus88 the glare issue seems to have been worked out for me by doing several things.....

1. I tube rolled and bought several sets of 6sn7 tubes here is what I bought
RCA's black base with grey glass
Sylvania's GTW ( I am at work so I can't rememeber axactly but it was the set that were for military use)
2 set's of Tung Sol's all black base
Ken Rads
I also replaced the rectifier tube with a Mullard. so far I have tried and burned in the RCA's and TungSol's. I did not like the RCA's but really like the TungSol's. With the RCA's the high's seemed a bit bright and the mids on some musical passages were harsh. I burned in all of the tunbes for about 100 hrs prior to listening. Did the same for the umbilical cord as well. Have not tried the Ken Rads or the Sylvania's hopefully I get to before my second child arrives. The other improvement I got from Tube rolling was that my loud thud through the speakers when you tap on the pre-amp is now completely gone....Everytime I went to mute or just tap the unit I would get this stinkin loud thud through the speakers...only when you tapped the unit or hit the mute a small thing but it did bother me. With the NOS tubes gone problem solved. It's been great. As for system cohesion I run an Accuphase A50A amp to B&W 802N speakers.

NP and good luck I still think you should give the Umbilical cord a try....hopefully Brad will work out what ever issues he is having right now servicing everyone. If and when you decide to upgrade from the Cortese let me know as I am running the Chardonnay right now but love Vinyl. I run the Phonomena for the phono section.