Preamp Deal of the Century

Anyone heard the GEC copy KT-66 by Shuguang from China?

Tim- you will not regret it. If the phono stage has been improved, then a real bargin becomes an unbelieveable bargin. Just be sure that you are careful with locating the units avoid picking up hum (due to unshielded wiring, not due to tubes).

Jjprez- Not sure what the actual #s are, but its high gain for sure! Selectable loading w/a 4 way slider "on the fly" and plenty of gain to handle a 0.25 mv mc cart.

Anyone try the CBS-Hytron 6L6Gc tube in your Syrah? Just put them in today and they sound pretty nice and look way cool!!!

Bwhite- Can you recommend some KT-66s. Not sure I can afford the 350Bs, unless anyone can recommend the new Chinese production.

Granny- If I remember you got your used as did I. Did you get the "manual". If you did, re-read it and you will see that Mick used unshielded wire throughout and you also have the umbilical. Combined with the overall high system gain, there are lots of opportunities for hum and noise. I had to re-arrange the two pieces, and re-dress the umbilical to get rid of the hum, but now it is as quiet as a tube piece will ever be. There IS crosstalk between sources, so you will have to shut off one when you listen to another (or at least I do). I also am using a Balanced Power unit, but have had that for a while. Of course ground loops can be a bitch, but you may not actually have a loop. If the pre is closely positioned to a powerful transformer, you can definately get hum. Try moving things around and you should be able to get rid of the cheaters (if not, give me a shout and I've got a Vans Evers power cord with a 2 prong plug and separate ground wire you might want to borrow.

I had my ZH-270 hooked up to some VSA VR4Gen3SEs the other day and they sounded quite good. TONS of bass and more than enough power. I think that for R&R, that would be fantastic combo.

OK I have a question for you tube mavens. I have some JAN Tung-sol 6L6WGBs (GT Shape) and some Sylvania 6L6s (ST shape). The Tung-sols have only 6 pins and the have 7. Both do NOT have a pin 3rd position counterclockwise from the key. All of the rest are present on the Sylvania; the TS also has no pin at first slot clockwise from the key. What gives?

Supratek specialists- help needed. My Syrah appears to have s#$t the bed. EMC-1 cdp and H270 amp works just fine when I run direct input, but get almost no output when I go from the CDP to the Syrah! Just a faint signal at the speakers which does not vary with the pre volume control. All the tubes are lit, and I rolled in another set. Same thing. Nada. Zilch. Was working fine a little while ago, but it did seem rather warmer than I remember. Its almost like a tape monitor switch has been flipped, but this unit does not have a monitor. Any thoughts? I've emailed Mick but no response yet. HELP!!!

Thanks guys, but this unit does NOT have a tape monitor loop. A second set of main outs and an additional input, instead.

Anyone?

Thank you everyone. My Syrah does not have a gain attenuator or an RCA/XLR switch. I am in contact with Mick, but so far no cigar. He had me check a dc voltage near the 6L6s which is supposed to be 300v, mine shows 0.16!!! I will double check the dc umbilical.

Bwhite- Do not understand "Check that you do not have the RCA cables from your EMC1 plugged into the wrong RCA inputs on the Syrah - that ones you used to have them plugged into. Double-check. And thanks for the info on the tubes.

I rotated the input thru every choice, Bwhite. The only sound I get sounds like "cross talk". Faint but clear presentation of CD, no matter what input I select.

In case anyone is interested, Mick walked me thru trouble-shooting it w/a multimeter. Found out that there was no voltage to the pre, but voltage out at the PS (360 vdc, careful there, boys and girls. Traced it to a broken center (hot) wire on the umbilical (I hope). If anyone has an extra, I'd love to borrow it until a new one arrives from down under. If you can help me out, shoot me an email. Of course, I'll pay shipping both ways.

Correction- Now he's got me taking the darn umbilical apart and re-soldering it. Stay tuned boys and girls, reading voltages is one thing, soldering may be a whole different story.

Well, I've got my 6F6G(st)s and I have Ken-rad and Tungsol 6SN7s. Now if Mick gets me my replacement umbilical I can give them a whirl in my Syrah. Note- I had to have one of the 6F6s replaced. Plugged it into a small Dared mono that I have to start burning it in, walked out of the room to let it warm up, and came back to a cherry-red tube, with smoke coming out of the base!! No flames, but they were imminent. Got it unplugged, cooled off, and fired up the mono w/another tube set. It worked fine, but I am quite glad it wasn't my Syrah that got lightly toasted. Lesson learned, never leave a new tube unattended when firing it up the first time. Any tube can be damaged in transit.

Its possible that the HT pypass is just an input w/unity gain. Probably accessed just by rotating the input selector to the correct position. OTOH, the Syrah does have the capability to have 2 toggles, one on the front right and other on the rear left.

Saint- the issue is that the phono stage is very high gain and the whole pre uses unshielded wires. The unit can pick up hum from its own power supply, or from other transformers in your rig. You may have to experiment, but in general, try to keep the phono input cables AND the control portion of the pre as far away as is reasonably possible from the power supply. Keep the main remote removed from other transformers as well, and make sure the line ins only cross a power cord at right angles. Make sure you tone arm leads are grounded to the pre. Of course, there's also the possibility of ground loop hum, but that's another issue.

Several Supratek owners, myself included, have gone from CATs to Suprateks. I had a Ref MK2. No comparison. The Syrah made the CAT sound clinical and flat. And the ability to change cart loading on the fly is a real nice feature.

Slipknot- I had an SP9Mk2 in my system not too far before I got my Syrah. Its a VERY significant improvement to the Syrah. Can't even imagine what the Chenin will do. You should be a very happy camper. You can use the waiting time to shop for some NOS tubes.

Actually, I am also interested in anyone who has heard both First Sound and Supratek units in a reasonably direct comparison.

Mrmb- You're in for a real treat with the phono stage, and for me the icing was the ability to change cart loading on-the-fly! Let the tube-rolling begin!! Although not until break-in is finished.

try on the back of the unit. Or maybe there is no monitor circuit and thus no switch.

Slow- kewl. Keep us posted.

I'm not familiar with your amp, but the speakers are definately not up to the level of your pre and source electronics.

Your room is a bit small, so I am thinking monitors or small footprint full range speakers. For the latter, maybe VR 4jrs or Vandy 2ce sigs and a 2WQ sub. Used, either of those would keep you well under budget. At $3.5k for a tube amp, you could get a used, stock Berning ZH-270, or nice pair of Cary monoblocks if you end up with high eff. speakers. Check w/Bobby @ Merlin as to whether your room is too small for the VSMs. He will be happy to talk to you even if you are looking in the used market. If not, the Supratek/Berning/Merlin combo is generally highly regarded in these parts. There is a VAC tube amp that is for sale now, that you could team with 2ce sigs and still stay w/in your budget of $3.5K and stay under budget.

I have not heard any of the Cary's except for a 2A3i (integrated) which I own and it has actually driven my Merlins pretty nicely. The 805 has a great rep.

Is there a tape monitor switch? If so, try setting it in the other direction.

Tapping the amp and hearing it in the speakers is a microphonics issue. How hard are you tapping? Don't know about the crackling, but I did have a problem with the power umbilical. When you move tubes around, you could be jiggling it. Make sure it is secure and fully in place, and then try moving it around to see if it makes the crackle.

Jay- Mine Syrah does not have a gain switch. It was custom-configured with a mono-stereo blend switch. The umbilical can affect sound quality if it picks up some emi or rf noise, but what I was thinking of was in intermittent short/open connection. There are multiple very small solder joints at each end of the connector, all of which are vulnerable due to cord movement. BTW light tap on chassis audible does indicate a microphonic tube, as well.

I'd be interested. I also need to have the overall gain reduced and would like to have the sacrifice one of my dual outputs to get a tape loop in place.

I need your help guys. Anyone with technical expertise, please chime in. I have already sent an email to Mick. My Syrah seems to be inducing a buzz in my Joule Electra OTL amp. Not in the speakers, but in the amp itself. Loud enough to hear from 10' away. Starts as soon as the pre is energized and goes away when its shut off. Lifted the ground, no help. Muted the amp, no help. Swapped in my old Yammie C2a from 25 years ago, no buzzzz. Any ideas? Jud at Joule says he has no clue.

Bob- I probably will be selling it soon. I will need to figure out what is going on with the Syrah first. If it has to go "down under" I may hold onto it a while. My general comment is that the Berning is more neutral but the Joule is more emotional. Obviously a major diff in MSRP. I have not gotten the silver wire upgrade on the Berning, nor do I have the Stereovox cables that others rave about. Right now I will probably stick with the Joule, but based on bang for the buck (esp. if you are buying new) the Berning is quite remarkable.

Bwhite- this is new. I had used the Berning and the Joule with no problems. Then the Joule crapped out and went home to Jud for repairs. When I hooked it up upon return, BUZZZZ. Its from the amp, not the speakers. Swapped in a new (old) pre, dead quiet. Upon Jud's suggestion, I powered the Supratek via (gasp!!!!) an old extension cord from another circuit. A little buzz at the amp, but in playing around with home made noise detector (a length of old hose held up to the ear), I was able to track the predominant noise source to the power supply stage of the pre-amp!!! Further testing showed me that it is coming from inside the pwer supply, up through the vent (?) slots in front of the rectifier. NOt sure I want to fish around further in there with power on and high voltages, but does anyone who knows how these things work have any ideas?

Current situation- I have traced the noise to the torodial power transformer on the Supratek power supply. I tested the rectifiers (about 6) that I have and unless every one is bad, my tube tester is on the blink. Anyways, it starts immediately when the power switch trips the circuit. Any thoughts?