Preamp Deal of the Century

Gentlemen,
After following this thread for a long time, I must admit to being intrigued.

1) Does anyone have a headphone jack already or is Jpms the first to order it? If you have it, how do you find it? If not, are there technical difficulties to put one in? (I would have thought the process similar to putting in a third set of RCAs)

2) What are the volume controls on the Syrah and Cortese? Pots? Stepped attenuators?

3) What are the remote functions? Is it possible to get a remote for the Syrah?

Thanks in advance,
Travis

Outlier, thank you much for the info regarding the remote.

To those who have the Syrah or Cortese, is the volume control a smoothly turning knob or a stepped knob? Has anyone asked Mick for something specific in regard to output control?

I'd also be interested in hearing from those who got their Supratek 'customized' and with what features?

Thanks in advance,
Travis

Tubegroover, shiraz/syrah are the two names for the same grape. Thought to be of Persian origin, it is the most common grape in wines from the Rhone (both generic Cotes du Rhone and Northern Rhone wines such as Hermitage, St. Joseph, etc). It is also used blended with grenache in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It is probably the most common grape grown for red wine in Australia. It is also grown in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

From what I know, "shiraz" is the name SOUTH of the equator and 'syrah' is the name used in the U.S. and France - pronounced as Asa suggests.

I have been curious - and Mick, if you're still keeping track of this post, perhaps you'd like to chime in? :^) - as to why Mick chose the non-Aussie version of the name. And is there a tube DAC called the 'Mataro' somewhere on the horizon?

Outlier, I think the original store price in Australia was around A$350-400/btl (which came to about US$220+/btl) but in the 2-3mos since release, it has risen to A$500-600/btl from what I can tell. If you can still find it at $220, now's the time. It probably won't get cheaper. FWIW, the 1996 is also a great wine [I dipped into my stash too early :-(] and is probably 40% cheaper. The relatively little-known Penfolds wine called RWT (similar red-on-gray label to Grange) is a similar wine, is probably half the price (and maybe 1/3 in a year like 1998) and in terms of bang-fer-yer--buck category, I'd expect it does really well for 1998.

All of which brings me to agree with Asa's point - 'another outlandish decadent hobby'!

Hi Outlier, I completely agree on the Clarendon Hills wines. I cannot recommend them highly enough (if you like grenache). I tried and liked them enough to buy a case+ each of the '01 Clarendon Hills Kangarilla, Clarendon, and Blewitt Springs single vineyard grenaches and cellar them. I also like the Liandra shiraz and can find it from time to time here in Tokyo. I have not had a chance yet to drink either the Piggot Range or the Astralis but I hope to.

Thanks for the reminder about winecommune.com. I live in Tokyo so shipping would be a problem but it IS a useful resource. I also like WineBid (something I think I learned about from fellow Agoner Twl in another thread) and Wine-Searcher.

Friday night and I'm about to open a bottle of '99 Torbreck Steading. Yum! Clink! :^)