Hundreds of audio related items for sale.
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I'm relocating the Supratek factory and I have to relinquish a lifetime's collection of audio goodies.Ill be posting all items here on the blog, in no particular order, and in stages, as I get a chance to log and photo everything.There will be amplifiers, turntables, speakers, horns, compression drivers, digital crossovers, analouge crossovers, and eventually hundreds of transformers and components.Prices include packaging, but not postage or freight.YAMAHA D4020 DIGITAL DIVIDER.The legendary Yamaha digital crossover , these are highly sought after in the pro-audio world and almost impossible to find these days.They sound very good and have up to 4 excellent crossovers , from 6 to 24dB , with filter, PEQ , Delay and compression effects.Yamaha always makes great sounding gear.Best of all, they have rotary controls for level adjustments of the 4 filters - this is much simpler and gives greater control of adjustments, which is so critical to get the very fine control needed to tun...SATYA INTERCONNECT CABLES
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Over the many years I've been producing amplifiers and pre-amplifiers I've often been asked to recommend interconnects .I tend to decline to do this as I just don't think there are a lot of interconnects that are either good value, or do what they are supposed to do. There is so much hype around interconnects and speaker cables- its possible to spend thousands on interconnects , for little discernable improvement in sound quality.There are some preposterous claims made for some of these expensive cables , and they can certainly sound different .Mostly because they have been engineered to act like a filter or tone control , but this is not the purpose of a good interconnect.A good interconnect will let the signal through and do nothing more and certainly nothing less. It will allow the excellent frequency and phase responses of a good preamp to travel unhindered through to the power amp , with no detraction or addition to this signal.It will be quiet , providing a barrier to any e...DHARMA LineStage
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Just in time for Xmas '23 the time is right to announce a new Supratek product- the Grange Signature Linestage.For the first time, a Supratek product won't be named after a wine variety - I've decided to call this preamp DHARMA, which is Sanscript for TRUTH . Appropriate I think , as this is the finest preamp I've built .Based on the Grange Signature, the DHARMA is minus the phono stage, but has the same linestage circuit using 1944 NOS 6J5 tubes and the same power supply with constant current source tube regulated circuit.The best linestage I've ever built, and the NOS 6J5 tubes are wonderful preamp tubes.Combined with the Supratek Signature circuit , this preamp is warm and natural sounding, and yet still so insightful and revealing. Its the preamp to end your days with and the feedback from Dharma owners is very positive and rewarding.Its only available with 6J5 tubes or if a Dual version is required (for biamping) it can be built with NOS 6SN7 tubes.A spare set of boxed 6J5 tubes...SUPRATEK MERLIN
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Many years ago I made a Single Ended amplifier that bordered on the ridiculous. It measured 650mm by 650mm (one monobloc channel) and required two men to lift it. The text from my web site said:"The V1505 and it's equivalent the 212E has been described as the ultimate audio valve. An imposing 270 mm high and 90 mm in diameter it is a spectacular tube by any standards. A valve of this quality demands preceding driver stages and power supplies of the highest calibre. I decided that I would make absolutely no compromises in any way in the design and building of this amp. Each monoblock amplifier (two for stereo!) measures 650 mm x 650 mm. There are 5 power transformers, 4 chokes and 5 signal-circuitry transformers on each chassis. It is finished in hammertone silver and black and with the Ediswan V1505 valve alight is a beautiful statement of industrial art. It certainly causes comment and wonderment from all who view it.CIRCUITRY I chose what I believed would be the best v...More Supratek Grange and Musings.
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Reimars White DHT 300B Grange My finest preamp - the Supratek Grange is perhaps the most distinctive tube preamp you can buy, but I'm most proud of the engineering that goes into them. It's the end product of decades of designing high gain transformer coupled preamps. The phono stage is especially interesting - its an ultra high resolution moving coil gain stage - what comes out of the grooves is literally frightening , no warm, romantic tube sound here, its amazing how much information is in a vinyl groove , and the Grange phono brings every last piece of information. Sizzling highs, solid complete bass, but still with some tube magic to enhance the realism. The Linestage ideally compliments the phono stage , The Supratek sonic signature is famous for its 3D soundstage and "big" imaging .Wherever possible , all tubes...The Biggest, Baddest, Ugliest 6 Way Horn System - Uncompromised Sound
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I've been building stereo speakers for my own personal use for nearly fifty years now.I'm no expert on speaker theory but I've learnt a good deal about putting drivers together to form some interesting speakers over the years.Ive tried most of the formats- traditional moving coil box speakers, electrostatics, ribbons, horns, open baffle and I've had good results with all types.Some memorable memories are Goodmans Axiom 80 and 300 bass driver in bass reflex, Crown electrostatic panels , Edgar and Azura tractix horns, Supravox full range field coils on open baffles, Tannoys, in different configurations and many more, all of which gave me a great deal of enjoyment and satisfaction.Ive also owned many commercial designs- Quads, Tannoy, JBL, Martin Logan, Magnaplanar, Acoustat, Canton, Acoustic Research, Lipinski, Nakamichi, too many to remember. Ive always been attracted to horns, and spent a good part of my audio journey listening to them, although I will admit its sometimes ...A Tale of Two 300B Single Ended Amplifiers
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The 300B tube is probably the most popular Directly Heated Triode tube. Its been used as a premium hifi tube for nearly one hundred years now, so its been well and truly validated. Its famous for its natural sound , with its reputation beginning with the Western Electric 91A amplifier., way back around late 1930. This was initially manufactured for theatre sound , but over time gained a reputation for its hi fi capabilities .Many versions have been built over the years , using different driver tubes, but the "real" WE91A used a 310A pentode tube driving the 300B tube in Single Ended configuration .This tube is quite rare these days and no longer available , so other different pentodes have been substituted . (Actually PSVane make a replica) The 6SJ7 is quite close and the easiest substitution to find these days . There is a Russian version widely available that is reasonably well made.Pentodes have high gain , so can be used as a single driver stage, but pentodes dont have...Return of the Grange
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Its been a while since my last post- things seem to be returning to some sort of normalcy, so hopefully I'll be able to contribute a few more blogs...I'd like to talk about my Grange preamp - I used to make the Grange around 15 years ago, just before I took a 5 year diversion from the audio industry ( although I did make the occasional preamp and did a lot of preamp R&D during that time) The Grange was my piece de resistance and was definitely one of the best looking pieces of audio gear available then, and of course it sounded even better than it looked.Here's some pix of the various finishes.The Grange used DHT tubes 300B or 45, much like the DHT Cabernets I build today - a different circuit but the same concept .I've reintroduced the Grange , once again its my finest preamp and it is available in a number of configurations , starting with :The GRANGE SIGNATUREI've never called one of my preamps a signature model , but this Grange is definitely my baby .It's circuit is w...DHT or 6SN7 Cabernet Preamp.......or both?
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Well it's been far from almost daily blog.. I haven't put a new blog page up for quite a while.
Seems that as I've got older, I have less to say...there's so much noise on the internet and the forums , and everyone's got an opinion on everything . I prefer to stay off the forums as I find it hard to consider it a legitimate source of knowledge , and I'm too busy anyway.
I've been building tube audio equipment for a very long time now , and I like to think I have a pretty good idea of what works , but I'm not so interested in flapping on about it on the internet, I'm happy for the products to sell themselves as the very finest product you can buy at a realistic and fair price.
I'd never sell a tube preamp that uses 12AX7 tubes in a cathode follower configuration for $40K, but you can buy one if you have the money to burn.....or you can buy a superbly engineered product, at a fair price that will last forever.
Ok , back to the topic. I get a lot of emails (and I'm always happy ...Dual Cabernet for Bi-amped Electrostatic speakers.
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Matt owns a pair of big ER Audio electrostatic speakers which are bi-amped - the bass section is driven by one amp and the mid/treble is driven by another.
Also has a pair of very nice sounding Ripole subs.
I have a similar system with a bi-amped Acoustat 2+2 stat speaker , so I was eager to build Matt a Dual Cabernet preamp with his stats in mind.
The Dual Cabernet has two seperate and independent linestages.
Preamp 1 uses the two back 6SN7 tubes - its a transformer coupled linestage very similar to what I use in the Gen3 preamps.
Preamp 2 uses the front two 6SN7 tubes and the 6N6/6H30 tubes in the middle .
This is different circuit and has extremely low output impedance, in the order of 30 ohms .
It also has very good bandwidth with response from 5hz to 100Khz +- 0.5dB
Both circuits have the Supratek sonic signature , but preamp 2 is a bit more of a beast in its drive capabilities - you could use it to drive 6 power amps and a set of subs.
The two large knobs on front of pr...Supratek Power Amp
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I haven't built a power amp for some time, the demand for custom preamps remains high and I really think a good preamp provides the most bang for buck.
Of all the power amps I have built over the years, the compact and lovely sounding Malbec EL34 monobloc was one of my favorites.
With same size chassis as the preamp you could have a reasonably compact 4 box system (preamp and power supply and the two monobloc power amps) that looks and sounds a million dollars.
I have a horn system that has a >100dB bass horn and I wanted an amp that was dead quiet without using DC heaters (they radiate a lot of heat with power tubes)
As my preamps all have true balanced outputs I decided to utilise the perfect balance these provide and build a XLR input power amp with balanced inputs. Balanced inputs means the power amp doesn't need an internal phase splitter and you could say, that despite the driver stage being a little more complex, it is a "purer" system.
Its certainly quite with no ...BUYING A TUBE PREAMP
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So you want to buy a tube preamp? Good move- a tube preamp can be one of the most rewarding upgrades you can make to a stereo system.
Apart from a new set of speakers , a good tube preamp will give you the most audible change to your system.
But like speakers, there are good and not so good preamps , so what should you look for when previewing preamps?
1. TYPE OF TUBE PREAMP
There are many ways to build a tube preamp. It can be very simple with one tube per channel , and even simpler with one double-triode tube for both channels.
And it can be very complex with lots of tubes and balanced operation.
The main advantage of tubes over solid state transistors is that zero feedback can be utilised in a tube preamp, whereas its very difficult , and usually unsuccessful, to build a transistor pre with zero feedback.
Now feedback isn't necessarily a bad thing , but the amount of feedback needed to linearise a transistor preamp is.
The beauty of a tube preamp is it can be kept as simple as po...Wiring.
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Well I've tried to let this go for years, but I guess it's time to address it.
In the past, my preamps received criticism about the internal wiring.
In my opinion it came after my preamps were compared to other manufacturers product and were heard to be clearly superior.
The only recourse these manufacturers , and some miffed owners of other gear ( I guess it's not so much fun when your $25,000 pre gets blown away by something a tenth of the price) was to criticise the internal wiring of the Suprateks, which to be truthful did look a bit messy.
But there was a good reason for this : I built maybe a hundred prototypes before I decided to go into the audio manufacturing world , they were all point to point wiring, where every component is connected to another either by wiring it to a terminal or using it's own wire leadout. They are wrapped around the connecting terminal and then soldered.
In theory , the pre would work with no soldering at all, just the hard wired connection betw...More questions...
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I received an email with questions about a Cortese phono preamp.Quite interesting questions so i thought I would make a blog with the answers.
I have a good idea when I hear things if i like them or not. But I’m in no way an engineer and while I can tell you I like silk domes much more than metal domes or that I like the timbre and space tubes can add. That some of the things I appreciate are saturated timbres and dynamics vividness and an alive quality some refer to as musical. I like to hear space but I’m not overly concerned w the size of the soundstage and image specificity I don’t like a bright etched or grainy top end or tipped up highs masquerading as details.
Sounds exactly like a Supratek preamp, but you do get a big soundstage, much appreciated with the right speakers.
Dynamics are the big thing with The Suprateks- the high gain is there for a reason- it results in BIG dynamics with the added realism that brings. The gain control at rear end of cir...More on Gen3 Cortese Preamp.
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I've had a few people ask me for more detail on Gen3 , what's it about , and is it a big deal?
For the first time in years my backlog of orders has diminished and I can deliver an order within 1-2 weeks - very quiet at the moment.
On a positive note this has given me some time to do some listening and I've enjoyed pulling out some of my older preamp designs and listening to them and comparing them with the latest 2018/19 design.
I've also done some service work on some very old Supratek preamps, going back to the start of the century.
This usually consists of undoing well intentioned, but uninformed modifications - the internet forums are the bane of audio manufacturers with so many gurus making nonsense claims of huge improvements in sound quality with their recommended "upgrades" .
Despite a long production lifetime of over 20 years all of the Supratek preamps have a recognisable "signature" sound , which is not surprising as they all are two stage triodes , with tube shunt r...Generation 3 Supratek Preamp.
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The Supratek preamplifiers have always been tube based high gain preamplifiers built around a two stage triode design, and transformer coupled outputs.
The basic design has remained the same for 25 years, although there has been some small, some big changes in how I've utilised componetry and technological advances as they've become available.
I've always strived for the designs to be state-of-the-art technically , but always mindful that this does not necessarily result in the finest sound.
The purpose of a preamplifier is to invoke realism. A preamplifier must be technically excellent in terms of frequency response, able to drive any power amp, buts it's most important task is to have you believe you a listening to the closest recreation of a performance.
The strongest attribute of the Suprateks are their phase performance which leads to very precise and realistic 3D imaging- this is what provides musical realism.
I'm often told of the almost magical transformation of the sound o...Class D is affordable and sounds as good or better the SS/Valve why buy anything else
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Class D is affordable and sounds as good or better then SS/Valve why buy anything else.
This is the heading of a post on the Audiogon forum.
I dont normally spend any time on forums , but I advertise there and get feeds on my email, so ended up clicking on this one.
It ended up going the way of most posts- one-up-manship, guru pontification and commercial influences. No way I was getting involved in that one!
But I can make my observations here and it seems to me the poster is listening with his ears and not his heart.
Yes ClassD can sound pretty good in an initial listening session, and if your into frequency response, power and slam they do a pretty good job.
Long term I've never been able to settle into a Class D amp, I have a couple of Hypex in storage somewhere , and while I haven't listened to any of the newest models the basic operating principles of Class D remain the same- that damn low pass filter on the output.
Sure it gets rid of the grunge , but it also introdu...Chardonnay Pre-amp
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I haven't built a Chardonay for quite some time, as I've been very busy building LCR Cortese preamps.
The latest version of the Chardonnays are loaded with features- remote volume, XLR and RCA in and outs, adjustable gain and with a choice of finishes.
They employ much of the circuitry of the more expensive Suprateks- tube rectification and tube shunt regulation , the dynamic sound of high gain 6SN7 tubes , and the gain can also be adjusted to suit any system.
Output impedance is very low and they can drive any or multiple power amps.
At $US2000 for the basic model they are surely the best value in high end audio, as they have repeatedly been shown to embarrass preamps costing over $20,000.
I've built the Chardonnay to be as rugged and reliable as possible; in 30 years time they will be as good as new, perhaps a new rectifier tube every 5 years and other tubes every 10, although there are plenty of twenty year old Chardonnays with original tubes.
I recently got an email ...The Voice Of The Concert- the Western Electric sound.
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There's a Korean audio company that is (in)famous for displaying 1930's built Western Electric speaker systems at audio shows and upstaging just about every other display.
Here's a story about it, from John Darkos website
https://darko.audio/2016/05/fucking-hell-western-electric-horns-silbatone-fun/
Fucking Hell + Western Electric horns = Silbatone fun
by John H. Darko3 years ago
The F word. No, not that word! I’m talking about fun. Remember fun?
Many attendees of Munich High-End 2016 will talk of fun after the fact but walking the hallways and sitting down amongst them in many of the Atriums’ high-end exhibits, it didn’t look like there was too much fun getting about. A lot of solemn, serious faces sitting expressionless in front of a lot of solemn, serious music.
Not so in the Silbatone Acoustics room. The South Korean company metaphorically wrote “FUN” in 10ft high neon lettering; roughly the same height as their monster Western Electric 11A ...Suhendran's Dual Cabernet.
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I'm not a big fan of HT (home theatre) bypass in a stereo preamp, and I'm also not a great fan of balanced operation (see previous post for reasons) but I realize that for many people these options are a necessity, and I've offered both HT bypasses and balanced outputs in my preamps for many years.
As I've explained, true balanced operation via a centre tapped transformer is the purest and most transparent form of balanced , and is the only method I use.
Suhendran needed to integrate his HT system with a Supratek preamp, but he also recognised the advantages of using a Dual Cabernet preamp to bi-amp his speakers.
Any speaker with seperate connectors for bass and mid/treble can be bi-amped , which provides a good performance boost, but with the Dual Cabernet, and its two seperate line-stage circuits, with level controls for each, its possible to adjust the levels so as to adjust the bass and treble to get a perfect setting for achieving the ideal tone for room and personal tas...Azura Bass Horns
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Over the years I've had a few of Martin Seddon's Azura horns. They are tremendously impressive - there's nothing else like a horn for dynamics and "you are there" sound quality.
But I've never been able to live with them for long term. I need speakers that are accurate, and whilst its possible to use all sorts of implementation to get anything accurate these days, it isn't always agreeable.
Horns do have a "horn" sound - some call it a "honk" or "quack", but its just a slight tinge to the midrange that cuts a little naturalness from the response. Or at least that is the impression I've always had.
My Supravox 215 field coils in a large OB (see previous blogs) are the most natural and musical speakers I have , amongst my 4 systems set up in my (big) listening room.
All the previous horn systems I've had used bass reflex, Onkens or sealed enclosures for the bass frequencies. I've never had a full horn system where the bass is also produced by a horn.
The reason for this is that...
