Should I go valve?

Jesus this is getting ridiculous.

First came the vinyl, can't begin to describe the magic!

Now I'm seriously considering a valve pre

As I have to get a phono stage anyway, and was heading in the direction of TEAD, I figured I'd ask some opinions from some friends in the States.

They reckon this is the nuts

Sexy Syrah

It's the Syrah I'd be looking at, geez it even has a Theatre throughput and remote!


No chance to audition, it's made in Australia. Any thoughts?

 

:Quad: :tempted:
A tube pre is a interesting thought. Plenty knocking about s/h, but never heard of these.
I assume you're not contemplating a tube power amp :yikes:
If you are, you might have to reconsider looking at those big JBLs again, or some Siemens Eurodyns:
http://www.thomas-schick.com/audiomain.htm

BTW Merlin, what cart do you use on your VPI.
I am quite tempted by these BTW (alos plenty s/h). Maybe later in the year...

Isn't this hifi lark fun.

 

Never heard of them, but I like the wacky looking valves!


Stick with the Sim mate, its good enough surely.

 

Funnily enough Joel, I am toying with the idea of one of these to go with the Supratek

http://www.davidberning.com/zh270.htm

The combination is according to some friends suberb, but sadly there's a six month wait for both.

I'm using a Dynavector 20XH , but, as with everything I know there's better. I'm better off adding to my growing vinyl collection though for the immediate future.

Now surely that's a wind up Joel!

 

Yeah - those are quite some bottles on there - dread to think how much they'd cost to replace when they pop!

 

Truth is stranger than fiction.
What is more, they are quite possibly the best speakers I have ever heard - at least the ones in Kabinetts are.
Prices are stratospheric, naturlich.

Those amps do look interesting. Sadly I don't understand well enough to be able to say what differentiates them from other OTL maps such as these www.mactone.com

 

The tube line up on the Syrah is quite straight forward

. 5842, 6GK5 NOS phono tubes - 6GK5 is a nicely underrated tube and cheap. The 5842 is a modern take on the WE 417a, a bit of a cult tube, so can come in at about $50 a throw.
· Tube Regulator 5881/6L6GC tubes. These are cheap.
· 6N8P/6SN7 Pre stage - you can go mad here is you wanted to and spend anything upto $250, but You can equally get some for $20. Depends on how mad you want to be.

One thing is since these are on the pre-amp they will probably not need changing in it's lifetime with you.

Also on the newsgroup rec.audio.tubes they have discussed these and it got a muted thumbs up, which is very good for this group as they make the spate between LesW and Barnie look like Women Institute picnic.

 

I'm going to use a valve pre,I'm going to use a Conrad Johnson,which was a snip,and is very well regarded,and i'm hoping to match it to a Bel canto evo 200.2,so should make a intresting combination.There is something nice about the valve approach.

 

Should I go valve?

It sounds like you're very happy with the way your Moon amps are driving the Merlins.

Have you bought a CDP yet?

Surely this is where the cash should go?


Chris

NB
Does that link you put up only do mail order?
If so, is there a free trial?

 

Hi Chris,

I am indeed happy with the Sim kit, I just fancy trying valves but without most of the heartaches. If I don't try it myself, I will always have that nagging doubt.

The Berning and Supratek are recommended by Merlin users, plus the valve life on the Berning is exceptional and should need replacing very rarely. Sadly they are both handmade, so trial is out of the question. Still, with such a wait, there is no problem selling if neccessary.

Sadly Joel, neither do I, but maybe Lee could enlighten us here. I know very little when it comes to valves and TT's, which is half the fun I guess.

Fortunatley I know very little of computers either, so I wouldn't be able to find a newsgroup even if I wanted to. Tube rolling sounds fun though!

The answer is no, I am using the P30 with an HHB dac, it's OK! I guess I will keep an ear to the ground and see what turns up, but I doubt I will find something that I enjoy as much as the Eclipse, so may well look to a relatively inexpensive player or even try an HTPC with Lynx card.

 

I've had a look at the Supratek pre's before. Generally seem to be pretty highly regarded. They do (or used to do) a line stage only called the ahem.... Chardonnay, which would be the one I'd have gone for. Shame really cos I much prefer the Syrah grape .
Getting better value too as the dollar weakens!

I'm sure my G/F would just love more space hogging open tubes though

 

Merlin

nice thing that you brought out this / these units.

I often get very disappointed when I hear units which had very good comments. Now about the units of supratek the least you can say is that they look wonderful. And this could be a negative point also: why should somebody who cares about the price (as Mick says) bothers about the look of his units?
Anyway they seem to be very interesting units since some of the valve types he uses produce very low noise.

I have contacted Mick to see about the possibility of getting the Grange as phono preamplifier. He told me that in Europe there are about 3-4 Cortese.
I will let you kow how things develop.

cheers

 

Hi Titian,

it will be interesting to hear how you get on - I think I will probably take the plunge as well, either the Syrah or the Cortese.

I would prefer to get a buyer lined up for the Sim P5 first though, but the temptation at current exchange rates is high!

The choice of Pre is down to one of these Supratek units, or a Joule Electra LA150 + OPS phono stage. The Joule can be got for a similar price to the Cortese, but sadly it's an ugly brute!

unexciting picture

How did you find Mick BTW?

 

Hi Merlin,

I exchanged a few mails with Mick and of course I cannot say much about him. He answered my mails friendly and quickly and about the contents of them there is not much to say except for:

- there seems to be some "problems of noise and microphonics and a lot of the cost is involved in minimsing this". (my question was why the Grange cost more than the others)

- he's at the moment engaged in making review units for 4 magazines and therefore you will wait a long time before getting anything.

- He says "I think the phono/ line stage interface is extremely important and they should be incorporated into the same unit." I am looking for seperate units.

- I told a few people in the states about what he wrote me and the general comments was: "the usual things that average quality companies say". Jelousy? I cannot say.

So at the moment I am not sure about if this is the right way...
There are so many companies with which you can get easily hot when you see and hear about their products. Maybe it is better to cool off the head before spending money! I am not the guy who plays around with gear.

If you are interested in knowing more about our mails then contact me. I don't want to make public the contents of my mails and my feelings about something which I just heard about and don't know at all.

OT:
It would be nice to meet you on sunday the 22nd february in London (I will be at Lee's). I still have to sort it out with my wife!

 

Hi Titan,

l was wondering if you went ahead and ordered a Supratek?

l placed an order for a Cabernet about 6 weeks ago, fingers crossed l will see it within the next month

If you havent seen it already, there is a monster of a thread running on Audiogon about Supratek, makes for great reading if you have about 6 hours spare

Preamp Deal of the Century

 

Hi Mondie,
I haven't odered any Supratek after the mails with Mick.
The only component I would might be looking for (next year) is a substitute for my Klyne phono stage. Everything is working great here and even the Klyne is not much of an issue. Small tuning which I never thought about is though always actual (for example Tube rings) but further I go the less there is to try. I'm very, very happy about the music quality and after the room will get acoustically treated, I will continue to just enjoy listening to music. :boogie:

Yesterday night I just spent all the rest of this year's budget, planned for buying clothes, in buying 55 Jazz-CDs of the series Verve Master Edition. (don't tell that to Ian!!) :drum: There is a place in Germany which have a great special offer on them and I couldn't resist. :newbie:

Concerning Supratek or any other good component: I never heard any owner who say other than it is the best, it is great, and so on.
I though think it is great to support such small companies rather than those ones which make thousands of units and invest so much money in PR and advertising. For how long Supratek will keep out of the strategy of maximum profit, maximum business I don't know.
Please write a couple of words when you have received your unit and heard it for a few months even if I immagine already now what you will be writing.
I wish you happy listening. :beer:

 

No worries Titan, will write up a little blurb and post some photos when l finally get my hands on it.

 

Mondie,

Would live to hear your impressions once you've received the pre. Have spent the past couple of evenings going through the a'gon thread and must admit it has piqued my interest.

What's the rest of your system?

Regards,

Stuart.

 

G'day Stuart,

yep, l cant wait to get my hands on the amp and will post my impressions once l have it. l know of several other Aussie Supraket owners who have VERY big wraps on it.

Rest of my system consists of;

Audiomeca Mephisto ll Transport
Audio Note DAC 3 (extensive mods)
Storm Audio A-280 Hybrid amp (Aussie made, no longer around)
Equinox Audio Jupiter Speakers (Aussie made, as per my avatar)

And soon to be replaced Audio Research SP9

Cheers Simon

 

Hi Stuart,

l have recently taken delivery of my Supratek pre and am blown away at what l am hearing. You can believe the hype on this one.

PM me if you would like to discuss some more

Cheers Simon