Preamp Deal of the Century

Ait - you have a good point - although my experience is that isolation under everything - tubes and SS - (even power supplies for TT motors) make a difference as do cables and power supplies - when you drop in the new cable and it is bright ( but more detailed )it may well be isolation or power supply filtering that is needed to solve it rather than another cable - none of us will will ong enough to try out all the permuations of products on offer but it does keep you off the streets - I have ended up with ball bearings for isolation, ribbon cable and actively sheilded power cables with bybees + v caps and alps RK50 pot on cortese - it all sounds pretty good but who knows if another approach would not sound better

Cheers

I have been using SRA VR3 iso bases under my Supratek Cortese preamp and power supply for years with no sign of glare. Just pure sweet music. I use the Berning ZH270 as my amp and no glare issues from it either.

I recently pulled all my more expensive interconnects and replaced them with Acoustic Research Master Series interconnects. The sound is better and the cost for 4 pair of interconnects came to a total of less than $100.

Glad to see the thread continues.

Pjwd, I am not sure adding hardwood under or over the metal plats is a good idea. According to Mick, the metal surface functions as heat sink. To prevent the metal plats from vibration - I place a small wet special sponge (the type becomes hard when it dries up) on the top and another small piece underneath. At least it gives me a solid sound when I knock the metal part.

Do I hear a difference? Well I can't even tell the difference between different cables. But in this case I think there's better control and clarity. Didn't really bother to do the AB test.

BTW, my AB test is the most reliable way. My better half will switch whatever cable, cones or tweaks without my knowledge in a few weeks or months after my initial craze over it dies. So far I can tell I didn't detect any difference when between cheaper speaker cables, bi-wiring, power conditioner except when the power amp connected to it.

Wonder if I should just stuck to mini compos?

I just found one of the Phillips E180F(SQ) tubes broken on my Grange. Any recommendations as to a substitute pair? Or should I stay with the same brand? I was happy with the sound but did find it on the noisy side. Good tube sources of late?

Thanks,

Crubio

Chelvam - you could be right - the hardwood would conduct heat and transfer to air but not as efficiently as metal - if you really wanted to lose heat better if top plate was black and well ventilated- I have actually since changed bottom plate to a sandwich panel of aluminium sheet with foam core due to rack height limits and new tubes but I suspect the hardwood was better - life is too short to AB everything - in any case a stiffer base plate and improved footers help

Cheers,