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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.
128x128markusthenaimnut
sim_audio_nerd
46 posts
 

@reimarc Thanks!!!

tksteingraber's avatar
tksteingraber
538 posts
 

Anyone take delivery of a Supratek recently?  

Originally ordered a dark brown wood/chrome Chardonnay and ended up upgrading to a Cabernet 6SN7 since Mick had one available to ship sooner.  Might have been a cancellation…don’t know.  Mick mentioned he was having a very difficult time getting new tubes and said he was sending quality NOS tubes from his stash.  I received Radiotron (RCA Australia made 50’s-60’s) 6SN7’s, Russian made 6N3C’s 90’s?, Russian 5U4C 90’s for my set of tubes.  Curious to hear what tube set any of you received?
Also, would like to hear from any Cab 6SN7 owners on what tubes you are using or prefer.  Thanks

jackd
1,037 posts
 

@tksteingraber 

 

The Russian military tubes are pretty standard for him when he can get them but the NOS Radiotron's are an upgrade from the normal.  The 6SN7's should be fine as are the the Russian 6L6's.  I would look for a NOS rectifier though as the first swap.  They are getting more and more expensive but a good one should last you many years. 

tksteingraber's avatar
tksteingraber
538 posts
 

@jackd Thanks for the input.  What tubes are you using?  Nice to hear what others are doing. I have a selection of NOS 6l6’s and 6sn7’s that I can play around with.  What rectifier do you like or recommend? I have some 5u4g’s are they compatible 5ar4 sub?  Much appreciated.

jackd
1,037 posts
 

@tksteingraber 

 

I have both a Chardonnay and a Cabernet in two different systems and use Blackburn Mullard 5AR4's in both mainly due to the slow start-up feature.  Have used all of the other compatible 5 volt variables but always end up back with the 5AR4's.  As I leave my SS amps on all the time I don't get the noise at start-up and especially turn off with the 5AR4's I get with the other variants.  My next favorite of the rectifiers are the RCA 5AS4's a 5U4 variant.  In both preamps I am using the 6L6 tubes Mick supplied as I tried other modern ones and didn't hear a difference.  Never had a reason to own NOS samples.  Am using RCA 6SN7 GT's currently in both units but in the past have had good luck with Hytron 6SN7 GT's and Raytheon VT-231's. I own several NOS pair but never saw or heard the fascination with 5692's. I own two pair of 1943 Sylvania GT's that I bought NIB almost 25 years ago that on occasion I will put in one pair in one of them just to see if they can stay put but it hasn't happened yet. After almost four years of rolling 6SN7's in the two preamps I'm kind of settled in for a while with what's in them. 

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