Skypop
I just checked and my Chardonnay left England and is enroute to the Ontario Service Area a couple of hours ago by DHL. I really don't think the Chardonnay will reach me by Tuesday June 21 according to DHL tracking.
Preamp Deal of the Century
If anyone is looking for a true "World Class" preamp at a very fair price..heed my advice. I just recieved a Supratek Syrah preamp that was hand built by Mick Maloney in Western Australia, and it is absolutely beautiful! This preamp is the best deal you will ever find. I would put it up against any preamp out there for both looks and sound. Price? $2500 for the Syrah (includes Killer Phono stage). Not into phono? Try the Chardonney line stage for $2100. Don't get me wrong, I am not associated with this company. I am just a very happy owner! This preamp is VERY dynamic, yet liquid. It conveys the sound of music better than any other preamp that I have ever heard! You can check out the Supratek website at www. cantech.net.au
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It's official, my Cortese arrived this morning! So far its definitely sounding great! Only a few hours on it but from when I first put it into the system to now I can hear that it has opened up more, at first it sounded a little stuffy but not now lol. Mine is the dark wood base with chrome plate tops. The rest of my system consists of Magnepan 1.7i,and 3.6r's that I switch between sometimes,2 sunfire subs in use when the 1.7i's are playing,PS Audio M1200 amps, chord cutest dac,meridian cd transport and a meridian 518 processor, and my trusty Technics ML-1000 Mk2 Table with a Ortofon TA210 arm which I use different carts with. Everything sounds more lifelike and life-size. My other preamp is no slouch by any means-Marantz7 Preamp,technology moves on but I would still never sell my Marantz. |
As I mentioned above, the Supratek Chardonnay is an amazing preamp. It is now a few notches better because of the addition of the Revelation Audio Labs umbilical. Brad put 75 hours on that cable in his shop and I am reaping the benefits. I’ve listened 5 to 6 hours tonight and the improvement is quite significant. A cleaner presentation, better resolving, a richer midrange including vocals etc etc. If it weren’t for the many favorable comments about Brad‘s cable, I wouldn’t have given it a try. The rest of my system is…. Van Alstine SET 120 Control Amp |
Thanks gryphongryph. The Van Alstine is a great little amp and an overachiever for the money. It performs well across the board with the only caveat being I don’t listen to the very low bass recordings. So I can’t comment on that. It was recommended by a member here who is also a Chardonnay owner. I quite like the border patrol SEi dac as well. But I want to preface that by saying that there was a very nice improvement by adding the Jupiter beeswax caps. Cost me $250, but worth the money. I know it measures crappy, but I don’t buy based on measurements and I’m not technically inclined anyway. I will be getting JMR Voce Grandes in a couple of months, so I’ll be curious if the AVA amp, BP dac and iFi Zen streamer will be up to the task. Even though I’ve been in this hobby for over 30 years, these are new benchmarks in sound quality. My goal was for a very musical and engaging sound and I think I’ve achieved that so far. It took me a very long time to get to this point….. |
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