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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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In Reply to: Re: Supratek Syrah - For Sale/Opinions posted by bmotorcyle on July 22, 2002 at 18:04:42:
I've had my Syrah for two or three months now. It's had an opportunity to settle in and I've had an opportunity to roll some tubes. My unit was one of the first parafeed design units. I requested two changes from stock design. First, I requested a defeatable balance control. Mick placed in on the back of the control unit. I'm glad to have the flexibility. Second, I requested a stereo/mono switch. (Many sources during early stereo period have that "hard left / hard right" perspective and I really don't like it.) I LOVE the mono switch. It is truly magical to listen to a mono perspective with a preamp of this quality. I highly recommend it. I sacrificed a tape monitor feature to get the balance and mono switches. A good trade for me.Out of the box, with stock tubes (which are good, not great, current manufacture stock) the unit was outstanding...perhaps a little "hot" during the first week, then relaxing into a superb sounding unit. During this early getting acquainted stage, the line stage sounded very different than the phono stage to my ears. Both sounded quite musical, but very different presentation.
Time and tube rolling has turned this "outstanding" unit into something altogether magical. Best pre I've heard by no small margin.
I've rolled a fair number of 6SN7s through the line stage - and all of the quality NOS tubes from the 40's and 50's are clearly better than the stock tubes. That's to be expected. My favorite three are Raytheon 6SN7GT vt231; Sylvania 6SN7GT vt231; and RCA 6SN7GT vt231. Many other NOS 6SN7 types also sound very, very good. At this point, the line stage is the best I've ever heard. CDs sound wonderful. SACDs sound incredible - as good sound as I've ever heard. (I still have only a few SACD titles - but that'll change over the next couple of years....)
The phono stage is more complicated, with two gain stages - a pair of 417a/5842s amplifying signal into a pair of battery biased 6GK5s, which then sends the signal to the output transformer (yes that's right, this preamp uses an output transformer, instead of caps, for great drive and utter transparency). Rolling quality NOS tubes is even more critical in the phono stage than in the line stage. As much as I like the line stage above, about 60% of my listening is to phono sources. It's way outside any earlier experience I've had...and much better than any expectations re: what I thought was possible with a phono stage. It's spooky musical on good sources - balanced, dynamic, richly harmonic, and fully "integrated" or "holistic". If the sources are "bad" (i.e., poor mastering or tweaked highs), you'll instantly be aware of it. This has the effect of making a fair number of records sound bad - which is a price to pay for this level of resolution and transparency. When the sources are good, however, it's just a gas. Find myself shaking my head in disbelief and pleasure.
Perhaps from running in, perhaps from finding synergistic tube combinations -- the line and phono stages are now more similar to one another than when the unit was newly arrived. They each still have their particular characteristics, but they are more "alike."
This pre-amp is a fantastic value for the new asking price. Whether it will hold it's value is an open question...only the market will tell. However, if you love music, it's unlikely that you'll ever want to give it up. I suspect that it's my "last" preamp. In a few months I'll do a "formal" review on this site.
WTS
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Follow Ups
- Re: Supratek Syrah Opinion - Willie The Squid 23:31:08 07/23/02 (0)
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