I got a used Cortese in May. The original owner had excellent care to it - no scratch or dings. Yet on opening the package I sensed something came loose inside the power supply. Removal of the bottom lid revealed one of the big capacitor did come loose, plus a slight free play on the toroidal transformer. There is a black foil on the bottom side of the top plate, and all the components rest on this foil. Part of the black foil holding this capacitor tore/peeled off. I figure that this must be the result of rough handling on shipment (from Southern California to Canada) and the black foil/glue holding the capacitor had become aged due to immense heat cycles on daily uses (Cortese users know the top plate of the power supply runs very hot). With the guideline from Micy & Kevin (Thanks Micky & Kevin for your advice), the transformer was tightened back in place, and GE Sealant was applied to put the cap back in position. Kevin also warned me not to remove the phono tubes (as this time I don't have a T/T) as this will affect the bias. I did not open the pre-amp unit as there is nothing came loose. This makes sense as it runs much cooler than the power supply. |
Hey Chelvam, Congrats, you will love the Chardonnay. I recall Mick saying he would build some units here and there after he said his shop was closing up. I actually got a refund some time ago from him for a Sauv I had on order for over a year. He just could not oblige building it, so I got my deposit back. No worries. Sounds like he or his assistance(s) have some time now. I hope you don't end up waiting too long for your unit. I hope Mick opens up his shop again on a full time basis. I sure would like to get a Sauv or Cabernet for a second system I am putting together.
cheers and good luck. |
I can't see any broblems with glue-as long as it is the appropriate glue for the job.Adhesive technology has come a long way since the 50s-when,no doubt, it was unsafe to glue in components. I use new technology adhesives in eveything I make and these have rendered obsolete older technoloqies involving fasteners. |
Jtgofish, so, has adhesive technology come a long way since the 90s as well? |
Mick uses an expensive variety of Sika-Flex, a long lasting temperature resistant polyurethane cement/sealant. Like the Selleys gutter sealants its designed to last 25yrs+. He once told me besides the convenience of it, it also has good damping properties and stops the caps rattling and vibrating against the metal chassis.
Regards,
Steve M. |
Chevlam,
How did you get in touch with Mick? I tried the phone numbers on the website and one is disconnected, the other goes to a builder.
Simon |
has anybody seen this site: http://www.mentalpixel.com/supratek/index.htmlit's copyrighted 2007. the front page looks decent, but the rest of the site looks like somebody had no idea what they were doing. anywho, does anybody know who manufacturers the supratek remotes? i'm trying to get the hex codes for it so i can program my squeezebox remote to control the volume of my dual cabernet. |
Yes, I have seen. Metalpixel is just an advertisement company. Go to the original website of supratek.
Arkio, my Chandonney is being couriered today. For almost 10 years I did not change my Classe Amp or Preamp but discovered the missing element (which I always knew missing but can't quite put my finger on it) when I tried a blue circle preamp except the bass was not right. Please don't ask me to define "right". If you been to live music (not the loud or open air type) or orchestras often you can tell the diff. So keeping my fingers crossed Supratek will finally give me the sound I want. |
chelvam:
i was wondering what was up with that site as it was horribly made. i hope mick didn't pay much for that. good luck with you chardonnay. i owned one, but sold it and moved up to a dual cabernet. now that i'm getting into vinyl, i sometimes think i should've gone with a cortese instead. c'est la vie. |
Kg, if you observe the main photo in http://www.mentalpixel.com/supratek/history.html with the words "need a group photo here" and from there you can guess why it was horrible made. I agree the website is not helping Supratek's image. Maybe, I will email Mick about it.
I was about to get a used Nagra PL-L then I read somewhere Chandonney sounded better then Nagra and I hope so. I don't chase equipments. I got a very good room built for stereo playback and happy to just upgrade when I positively identify an improvement. I even discarded a high End speaker cables for a 6N OFHC China cable and no difference I can tell. |
Hi,
Just received my Chardonnay. Good packing. The only problem is, Mick forgot to include the manual. Anyone can help me out here? Thanks |
chelvam: if i'm not mistaken, when looking at the back of the chardonnay, the two sets of rca jacks to the right are preout 1 & 2. then the sets starting from the left are inputs 1, 2, 3, 4. there may be a tape loop in there somewhere between input 4 and preout 1. look at this picture for reference: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/supratek/3.jpg |
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Chelvam, Did you buy NOS or is Mick manufacturing again? |
Baranyi, I bought it from Mick - came with remote, balanced output and far too many inputs for my liking. |
Update on my 7193/2C22 Chenin Modification:
First of all, let me say I'm reporting on an August 2006 build Supratek Chenin preamp. I was bored with the 6SN7 sound, so I had previously modded it to run 2C22 tubes as single triodes in place of the 6SN7 as a directly coupled triode pair (which is the stock setup). This modification was detailed in this thread, several pages back. I did this by fabricating adapters for the tube sockets, so the 2C22 was still running at the set points for the 1st 1/2 6SN7, namely 100V plate and -3V grid bias (cathode resistor and 330uF cap). I much preferred the sound of the 2C22, so I decided to do further mods to bring the plate voltage up to a more typical range for a single 2C22 triode.
After reading about LED biasing as a replacement for cathode biasing with a resistor and cap (which the Chenin uses), I decided to try it while I was in there. Instead of using LEDs, however, I had some 600V, 1A Cree Silicon Carbide (SiC) Schottky diodes lying around so I investigated those further and found out that their properties were favorable for use as cathode bias diodes. They have a much higher forward voltage (Vf) than a Si Schottky Diode and a very low dynamic resistance, meaning they don't need to be bypassed with an electrolytic cap. The stock Chenin setup uses a resistor bypassed with an electrolytic cap to set the cathode bias voltage.
Since the Vf of the Schottkys was around .85V for the current I wanted, and I needed 2.5-3V of bias voltage, I used 3 of them in series. Since they are in a TO-220 package, it was very easy to stack them and secure them together with a drop of Crazy Glue between each of them - they ain't comin' apart! I then soldered together the appropriate leads and I had a nice neat package. Out came the cathode resistor and bypass cap, in went the diodes. Note: when stacking these diodes together, be aware that the heat sink is connected to the ground leg, so be careful of shorting things out.
I then disconnected the stock 66K plate resistors and wired in 35K pots for each channel so I could easily vary the plate voltage while playing music. I set it at 15K for starters - the plate curves say I should get about 135V at that resistance. I hooked up the power supply and made some measurements:
Voltage to the regulator tubes: was 292V, should be 300V, so I tweaked the adjustment pots behind the regulator tubes up to 300.0V. The difference was most likely due to my use of a GZ33 rectifier instead of the stock 5AR4; that is now compensated for.
RCA 2C22 tubes: one had 133.5V on the plate, the other 145V. The tubes were obviously unmatched! That could be a problem with my new fixed bias, so I went through my 2C22 box and found a match for the lower tube, now they are 133.9 and 133.5 plate volts.
Cathode Bias: was 2.60V dead on for both sides! Those Cree diodes are VERY consistent!
I then hooked it all back up in my system and did some listening. The first thing I noticed was the bass - more yes, but also much more nuanced. The bass lines on familiar songs were there, but I realized that what I once thought was one note was really 2 or 3 notes! Excellent! I think the substitution of the diodes for the resistor and cap was the reason for this improvement, since it was consistent at whatever plate voltage I dialed in.
The other big difference was in the midrange; it was much more meaty than before - I think that was due to the tubes operating at higher voltage and current - they were a bit starved before. This effect was more noticable at lower plate resistor values. I tried everything from 35K down to 10K ohms, and I think I prefer 15K the best. That also happens to place the load line in the most linear region of the plate curves - no coincidence, I guess. Everything just seemed to come together there. I will re-check it all tomorrow, and if I get the same result, I'll order the best damn plate resistor I can find! Or maybe I'll check out constant current sources...
I liked the sound I had before, but with the diode biasing and the optimized voltage, it has improved beyond my expectations. The crystal clear floating highs I had before are still there, but the midrange has blossomed and the bass is to die for. Well worth the time and effort. |
Chelvam,
So Mick still take orders for preamps?
My officemate, after borrowing my preamp for a week, wants to buy it but I am not selling. If Mick still take orders, I can tell my friend to email him directly then.
regards,
Abe |
Well.... he took my order and in fact he asked me how many do I want? |
What email address did you use to get hold of Mick?
Thanks in advance! |
amandarae:
he still responds to supra@supratek.biz. |
Thanks Kgturner!
I will let my officemate send his inquiries to that email address then.
regards,
Abe |
To all Chardonnay owners,
Can any of you guys help me out here?
1) Why are the tubes marked left and right? And how do I buy left and right tubes? Matched tubes mean it doesn't matter whether it is fixed on the right or left, correct? So why mine came with instruction that 1 pair goes to the left/right and marked accordingly?
2) Do I have to do some sort of internal adjustment for gain/bias when I change tubes to match left and right channel?
3)Anyone out there managed to trace out the circuit? Or managed to identify all important components? I am worried that in long run I won't able to do any repairs if necessary. In my country good technicians are rare breed.
Thanks in advance.
ST
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Mick marks them left and right becuase that'sd where they were when he tweaked the adjuustments. He has told me it is not important to keep them that way since the channels are very close. The Chard is self-biasing using a cathode resistor and capacitor, so there is no need to adjust bias with different tubes. I have been deep inside my Chenin and done a lot of mods, but I have not completely traced out the schematic (the Chenin has an added layer of complexity because it includes a phono stage). Don't know where you can get one, either. |
Further Chenin Tweaking (7193/2C22)
Well, I took the next step and replaced the plate resistor of the 2C22 tube with a constant current source, using an IXYS IXCP10M45S current regulator chip. A resistor in series with the chip adjusts it to whatever current you need. I'm running at 11mA current, with 3.45V of cathode bias (4 Cree SiC Schottky diodes replacing the cathode resistor and capacitor) and ~150V on the plate. The sound is incredible - this is the best my system has ever sounded!
A CCS gives you a horizontal load line, meaning very little distortion and maximum gain. It is unbelievable how real the music sounds now, even with the simplest possible CCS.
Next step is to try a more complex CCS using cascoded IXYS chips - the word is that the more complex CCS sounds even better, but that's hard for me to imagine.
Just thought I'd give a heads up to anyone who has done or plans to do the 7193 mod. Adding the diode bypass and CCS is easier than doing the adapters, and the payback is HUGE. |
Correction, the last paragraph above should read "diode bias" not "diode bypass". |
Ait, thanks for the input. BTW,you put more gain?! I am having problem to determine the best gain position because it is simply overwhelming in my system. Now, I am settled with the gain at tube set to middle and at the back 2 steps down.
But that not final because at different loudness the rear gain switch gives better sound at different position.
One thing that I can say is that Chardonnay may sound bright but on the other hand the preamp meant to be listened at realistic live level volume then it is the best sound I have ever heard.
If you want to play soft music then I suggest Chardonnay may not be the right choice because below the realistic live performance loudness it sounds bit uneven with highs emphasized. It is meant for real music as live music intended((not very loud though)) maybe around 80db on your SPL.
Just my thought after 50 hours of burn in.
ST
p.s. Is there any new owners of Supratek? |
The increased gain comes from the constant current supply (CCS) on the 2C22 tube plate. It allows the tube to operate at maximum efficiency by ensuring a constant current regardless of load - CCS is very popular with the tube DIY crowd, and now I know why! The preamp seems to have unlimited supplies of clean power with the CCS, and vocals are downright startling.
Since I substituted the single triode 2C22 for the dual triode 6SN7, I had much less gain than stock, so I don't have the "too much gain" issue anymore. |
I didn't follow the thread since December (a busy year...) and I am surprised about the comments on Mick's support of his loyal customers. I own a Chenin since 2005 and a pair of Malbecs since 2007. I had a small problem with the Chenin that Mick solved in a day with my audio engineer here in Philly. That was fast! I didn't have any problem with my Malbecs. I am still in contact with Mick, but regarding our other shared interest: good wine! I was the person that suggested the name "Malbec" for these amps, because malbec is the best wine that my native country, Argentina, produces. I ask him, now and then, about audio stuff and he always answers it promtly. I love my Suprateks and I am constantly comparing them with good pres and amps and they still are in my system. Next week I'll get an Allnic H 1500 and I compare it with the Chenin. Let's see what happens! Pablo. |
Hi Chevlam,
Mick dropped off my new Chenin on Monday when he came up to Perth.
He emailed me the manual last night, so I'll send it to you. |
I had a chat with Mick when he dropped off my Chenin. He said that he's not back in business, but is making the odd preamp with remaining stock to 'keep his hand in the game'.
I contacted him at a time when he was just finishing off a Chenin, so got lucky.
You can still contact him, but you'll have to ask if he's willing to make one. He indicated that his building preference was for the higher level preamps. |
Young, Mick did indicate he will be making only one or two grange per year from now one. Sad. And what you think of the sound. I am still not sure of the best position with the gain control. Hope your are having better luck. And please email me the manual. Thanks a lot. |
Can someone tell me which pin is hot for Chardonnay balanced output?
Thanks |
chevlam:
i can't recall which is the hot for the balanced outputs, but you should be emailing mick for some of these questions. i've emailed him twice already with some basic questions regarding tube compatibilities and he's always responded in less than 24 hours. hopefully somebody else can chime in and help, but mick can tell you just as quickly. |
Hi Kgturner, Mick just responded - pin 2 is hot. |
CCS update:
I installed the cascoded CCS in my Chenin and experimented to find the best settings. I have found that 15mA plate current sounds optimal, with 3.45V cathode bias. Incredibly clean, clear and lifelike. Plate voltage is ~175V at idle. |
I have been auditioning new interconnects and in the process I was forced to move my Chardonnay due to differing IC lengths which forced me into a new quest for isolation for my preamp.
What a fortunate turn of events. I previously had my Chardonnay on DH Labs ceramic cones, points down, sitting on a Neuance platform. I have been fighting an upper mid-range glare that I suspected was coming from my Berning ZH270 amp. Frankly, I didn't suspect that my Supratek was the culprit.
On my Chardonnay, I had the DH Labs cones attached to the underside of my chassis with two cones mounted beside the screws where the original feet were installed and one cone in center-rear of the chassis. Initially, I removed the Neuance and replaced it with a Lexan shelf supported four Herbies Tenderfeet, one under each corner of the Lexan. I placed my Chardonnay back into the system and the imaging immediately became much tighter by removing the Neuance shelf.
I then decided to cut another 1/2" thick Lexan shelf and I placed it on top of a piece of bubble wrap, sandwiching the bubble wrap between the two sheets of Lexan. Wow, much more clarity and better imaging still. The mid-range glare was still present so I decided to move the cones in front of the unit out to the very edges of my preamp underneath the wooden frame of the unit. Much better yet.
On a lark I decided to turn the front DH Labs points ups beneath the wooden frame and now things really popped into place. Midrange glare still present, but the imaging and clarity were magnitudes better. I then moved the center-rear DH cone to one rear rail, adding a fourth cone to the other rear rail, making it one cone under each corner of the wooden frame. What I immediately concluded was the metal plate on the bottom on the preamp was a source of fuzzy imaging (which escaped me before) and also the source of the slight upper mid-range glare in my system.
I have concluded that using the bottom plate for support with either the stock feet or with cones is a major mistake in my system. I did find however that using cones under the four corners of the wooden frame imparted a very analytical quality that became too much of a good thing. I subsequently replaced one cone beneath the rear-center of my preamp; point up on the very rear edge of the unit with a Herbies Big Fat Dot between the tip of the cone and the plate on the bottom of the preamp. This brought the warmth back to the music without losing any of the clarity and focus. It was a home run solution in my system.
I will spare you all of the experiments in between with maple blocks, metal cones, damping materials, etc. that I tried in between the "home run" recipe and my initial Neuance setup. In the end, anything added or subtracted to my home run recipe was a step backwards.
Incredible clarity, separation of massed violins, separation of voices, even more holographic imaging and a more expansive soundstage in all directions are the results of my experiment. If you are like me and are constantly looking for that bell-like clarity without the often associated sterility, I would highly recommend experimenting with getting your Supratek off of the stock feet or any other type of foot that rests on the bottom plate of the unit. Try the edges of the wooden frame for isolation and see if you get similar results. I can't believe the sheer amount of information I am hearing now compared to before.
I do realize from earlier posts in this thread that some like the more romantic, diffuse sound of the stock Supratek unit. (Not me - I installed V-Caps and a DACT attenuator which removed a great deal of the diffuse imaging and haze in my unit.) So, if you are happy with the way your Supratek sounds, leave my isolation ideas in the dustbin of history. If however, you feel like experimenting, I hope you enjoy similar results in the end. I do have some Sorbothane coming from McMaster Carr that I am going to substitute for the bubble wrap as an experiment. After reading the Sorbothane website and their design "guide", I realize that I have used the wrong implementation of Sorbothane in the past. If anyone has any further interest in the Sorbothane results, I will post them here.
(To make it easier to follow my final recipe, I will recap it here for simplicity.)
On top of my Salamander Synergy cabinet is:
four Herbies Tenderfeet, followed by-
a 1/2" Lexan shelf, followed by-
a sheet of bubble wrap, followed by-
another 1/2" Lexan shelf, followed by-
two DH Labs Cones, points up beneath the very front corners of the wooden frame of the preamp and one DH Labs cone, point up, in the center of the back of the unit on the very edge of the metal frame/plate. Between the point of the cone and the bottom of the metal plate is a Herbies Big Fat Dot
(By the way, I have all of my components on a Lexan shelf now with Herbies Tenderfeet beneath the four corners and Lexan has given me the best results yet of any isolation material I have tried. My other components did not respond to the *additional* isolation tweaks of my “home run” recipe like the Supratek did. |
Hi Fiddler - agree totaly with your results - I actually added a hardwood base under the metal bottom plate just using longer screws ( and drilling vent holes) so I could use footers of various types - only difference is I have found that balls work better than cones ( I did a diy roller ball type using ceramic balls)
It is amazing how these things make such a difference - hard to explain the tower of stuff under your amp to visitors tho
cheers |
Hi Fiddler, try Herbies iso-cups instead of the cones. Should improve things even more. |
Snopro, I tried iso-cups previously and they weren't as good as the cones, but that was using them under the metal plate. I currently use them under my amp, but I may have to try them under my preamp now that I have changed my preamp isolation setup. |
Fiddler, I find all this very hard to believe. Have you read articles on sonic memory? More like the differences you are hearing are subjective or being influenced by your seating or head position. |
Believe it or don't! Ever heard or sympathetic vibrations. Websters dictionary. * Main Entry: sympathetic vibration * Function: noun * Date: 1898
: a vibration produced in one body by the vibrations of exactly the same period in a neighboring body. Your ears are more sensitive than you think. Ever hear tubes ring, speaker cabinets vibrating at frequencies affecting sonics. Room acoustics. One cable manufacturer actually uses metal shot in their power cables to damp resonances. I was like you and didn't think any of this stuff made sense, but I became a believer. I even used bicycle tubes under my equipment (gonna try this on the Supratek.) I it sounded much better. I didn't think a power cord made a difference in sound quality, but they do, even sometimes more than speaker and interconnect cables. Hearing is believing. Those metal tops and bottoms on the Supratek sure look great, but they sure do vibrate more than wood or heavy aluminum etc. They need to be damped some way! |
Jtgofish,
LOL.
I'm not asking anyone to believe it. Just relating my experience.
If you have a Supratek, easy enough to experiment.
And I think my sonic memory is good enough to last about 5 minutes from one change of footing to the next. Chair in the exact same spot. Exact same music cuts that I have listened to a hundred times.
The difference has been rather significant. And if you know the chassis design of the Supratek, it makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
But I don't expect you to take my word for it. It's easy enough to try.
And believe me, I am not one that falls easily to Audio Nervosa. If I clearly hear a difference, I will say so. On the other hand, I don't try to kid myself either if it's not obvious in my system, no matter how much everyone else is raving about something, I trust my own ears.
As an example, I just auditioned the much hyped Synergistic Research Apex and Precision Reference ICs in my system. The Audio Metallurgy ICs that I have been using were better in every respect except the mid-bass and there it was still close. That's $6,000 ICs against $400 worth of ICs. I can easily afford the SR ICs and if they were better, even modestly so, I would purchase them. But they weren't in my system. Regardless of what the over-whelming consensus has been in the Synergistic thread.
I realize many guys from the Synergistic thread here will find it inconceivable that I found the AM cables better, but once again, that was my experience. I have auditioned a lot of gear in the last couple of years and I haven't made that many changes. I try very hard not to let myself be fooled by the hype of reviews or the popular opinions here that seem to often to be nothing more than hype or Audio Nervosa.
If someone constantly posts positive results about everything new that they audition, (and there are many here who do) that simply sends up a red flag to me. I find it laughable that every 3-6 months some here move on to new components or cables. To me, that's a sign of someone who easily falls prey to Audio Nervosa...and trust me, I ain't one of them.
Think about it, how often to you see guys post to a thread like the Synergistic thread that the "newest and latest and greatest" cable design is "jaw droppng". Well, search their posts and you will see a pattern that EVERYTHING they try turns out to be stunning. If it's a new component or cable, it always turns out to be better. And I believe that's simply nonsense.
So back to the topic at hand. If you have a Supratek, play around with it. It may or may not work in your system, but it is a rather cheap experiment. But more importantly, first examine the chassis of the Supratek and I think you may find rational reasons why the thin, poorly supported metal plate on the bottom of the chassis may be a terrible base to support the preamp to begin with. Simply tap the bottom plate and listen to it vibrate. |
Agreed I was thinking of getting some marble cut or some corian. That's a little over the top though. I will purchase some speaker dampening material for the insides of the unit, and try my bike tube underneath I really love my Supratek. Have had many preamp other than this one, and no one preamp is necessarily best, but this one does it for me. I hope the dampening deepens the soundstage, that is the only weakness (& it is very minor) that my Supratek has. Still sounds better in my system as a whole than any other preamp I have owned. Killer tone! |
Jeffjazz and Fiddler, Well I really have become a bit sceptical about these sorts of tweaks. You can easily fool yourself into thinking these sorts of changes make a difference.The only way to be sure is to do an A/B comparison but even that is too subjective. If you have to make physical changes which take more than about 20 seconds you cannot recall accurately the sound prior to the change.That is as long as our sonic memory lasts. And as I said shifting your head position is likely to change what you hear so unless you have some sort of head clamp then you cannot asses changes properly either.
I own a Supratek Cabernet-the 300B version which I think was the pick of all of them-and I have heard them all. |
Jeff, you might try Lexan first. There are some high-end companies that make isolation products who use Lexan as their material of choice.
If you can't find it nearby, I will cut you a couple of 1/2" shelves to try under your Supratek. I have plenty to spare. |
Fiddler, I didn't believe my eyes, when I saw you using words "glare" and "Supratek" in the same sentence. I thought you knew not to use "glare", speaking of Supratek. I've learned my lesson awhile ago. It's a miracle, Supratek watchdogs haven't awaken yet. |
All disbelievers - just try out some vibration reducing tweaks - then report back - dont worry about the theory - prior to Newton you would have fallen off the earth - Fiddlers posts started the current flurry but his posts have always been clear and rational - reporting on experience - it amazes me that people believe in the free market except when it involves audiophiles - BTW if your sonic memory only lasts 20 seconds that should save some money
Cheers |
I'm planning to stick some self-adhesive sheets of Soundcoat on the bottom plate of my Chenin main unit and power supply while I have them open to do other upgrades. The plate is a bit flimsy. I figure what the hell, it can't hurt! |
Jtgofish,
"If you have to make physical changes which take more than about 20 seconds you cannot recall accurately the sound prior to the change.That is as long as our sonic memory lasts.
You are just being silly or you have terrible hearing.
By memory I can tell you on any number of cuts where exactly in the soundstage that the guitars, cymbals, typanis, voices, etc. are located with perfect accuracy in relation to the furniture, paintings, windows, speakers, etc. in my room. And I suspect most members here can do the same thing with their systems with music they are intimately familiar with.
Oftentimes a cable change, component change or speaker placement change will definitely alter the soundstage placement of instruments or voices that a three-year-old would notice. And if your system requires that you need to keep your head in a vice because the sound changes that dramatically; you need to rethink your choice of speakers -
"And as I said shifting your head position is likely to change what you hear so unless you have some sort of head clamp then you cannot asses changes properly either."
I would not argue that my aural memory may not be able to recognize or differentiate tonality or pitch changes very readily after a time, but I suspect many musicians might be able to due to their trained ear.
But I can assure you that the glare that was present before changing my preamp isolation is now virtually inaudible. Things like soundstage width, heigth, depth, muddy bass, glare, brightness, etc. all can be easily remembered from one listening session to another. Are you really trying to tell me that you don't think you could recognize glare, hardness, brightness (or however you would describe it) and then not hear the difference if it was absent?
A classic example of aural memory is the accepted "truth" by virtually all accounts that most systems sound better at night due to cleaner power. If we couldn't remember more than 20 seconds how our systems sound then we would never have the experience that our systems sound better at night. We simply couldn't remember the more dry, flat presentation of the daytime as compared to night.
And if you can't remember how a system sounds longer than 20 seconds, you may as well by a Bose surround system and be content. Using the 20 second rule, you should be able to play your current system and 20 seconds later play the Bose system and not tell them apart assuming volume levels are the same.
Hey, I'm ecstatic with what I am hearing since I altered my preamp isolation. If I am simply delusional, so be it. I'll just continue to enjoy my delusion. |
Maril, if I criticized you unfairly at any point for your characterization of your Supratek, my apologies.
Prior to my most recent posts, I never suspected that the glare I heard in my system was from my Supratek. I assumed based on the posts of another member here who complained of glare from his Berning that the glare I was hearing was coming from my ZH270 also. He sold his Berning due to this reported glare.
I continued to chase the glare in my Berning with tube changes, power cords, isolation efforts, etc. all to no avail only to discover my Berning wasn't the source of any glare.
The good news is the glare from the bottom plate support of the Supratek was easily remedied and I can't believe the difference. Listening for hours is a pure joy now. The frustration that I experienced trying to the rememdy problem is now just a forgotten memory (ooops, what am I thinking - my memory isn't longer than 20 seconds anyway :)
(Oh, and one more thing. Now I realize that by installing the DACT attenuator and the V-Caps I only exacerbated the glare since my Chardonnay became much more transparent, open and detailed with the modifications.) Now that glare is no longer a problem, I consider the DACT and V-Caps a major benefit with the additional clarity and detail they impart.
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