Supratek Owners Thread


Greetings All - 
It appears that the 26-million-plus view, multi-decade "Preamp Deal of the Century" Supratek thread has been removed. I'm not sure why, but suppose there must be a reasonable explanation.
In any case, on that thread I recently asked whether there might be interest in a "Supratek owners thread" and received some interest. 
The purpose of this thread is for Supratek owners to share the details of their system, ask questions, share information about any tube-rolling they have done, and so forth.
I'll kick us off here with a few details about my system -
ancient Linn LP12 with Ittok arm, Dynavector 17D3 cartridge into Cortese LCR phono stage
Power amp is a fully serviced Innersound Electrostatic amplifier
Quad ESL63 speakers (not USA monitors) or JBL 4430 studio monitors
Digital sources are immature and evolving - ancient Fostex CR300 cd player/burner
DacMagic 100 DAC
Nordost Blue Heaven 75ohm interconnect
Due to the fairly long lengths of speaker wire required in the new listening room, speaker wire is Belden 12 gauge wire designed for low-voltage outdoor lighting systems. 
Next steps - dedicated circuit, new power cords, new interconnects, new wires.
markusthenaimnut

Showing 8 responses by jtgofish

There is a big difference in sound between a standard 300B and say a TJ Full Music meshplate.Almost like a different preamp.With the meshplate you get beautiful airy treble,much better timbre and a much more holographic soundstage.If you have heard the difference between say the really good Dynaudio speaker models and the next tier down it is that sort of difference.The difference between good and great.
I have used meshplates in  my 300B single Cabernet for years with no problems.
Yes the alpha lam experience would seem to be far from typical.As soon as as read his post I thought to myself that sounds like a unit which had been messed with by some incompetent person.About ten years ago some people on the long Supratek thread were promoting swapping the standard caps for all sorts of more exotic and crazy alternatives.I suspect that is what happened to this unit except whoever replaced the stock caps also wired one in the wrong way round.Also the 101D Cabernets were my least favourite Suprateks and I have heard them all A bit too "characterful" for me although they might be great in the right system.Might be time to send that unit back to Supratek to be corrected and perhaps upgraded to the latest circuit/different DHT.
Also yes not all Suprateks have transformers in the chrome domes.It depends on the era/model.Both mine do. The domes were retained to  maintain a consistent aesthetic.

TJ Fullmusic 300B/n meshplates are excellent.Beautiful airy treble,lots of image depth and a lovely midrange.Not cheap any more though!

Yes those little toggle switches!Glad you got it working.Now enjoy the 3D ,dynamics and vibrancy they bring.

If you are struggling to get the centre image balanced may I suggest-

.Try swapping left for right speakers and right for left and see if the imbalance is still there.One speaker might be faulty.

.Swap the tubes left for right and right for left and see if that changes anything.That will indicate if there is a faulty/low output tube.

If all that tests OK then you might need to change the balance pot for a different value.Any technician could do that.