More on Gen3 Cortese Preamp.

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 regulation , massive power supplies and completely handbuilt.

The older preamps were mostly pure tube based , whereas the newer preamps from the second decade of this century had some solid state "transistor" componentry, mostly in the form of constant current sources.

The later were arguably more accurate , although the difference was minor and almost inaudible.

Specifications were slightly better with lower output impedance, although again whether that was subjectively better is debatable.

For quite a few years the Supratek preamps used Directly Heated Triodes (DHT) firstly with the 300B, then the 300B/45 followed by the 101D and finally the 4P1L.

DHT tubes are definitely more "tubey" sounding, they are warmer and this can often appeal to audiophiles, although one thing they almost universally dislike is the tube microphonics that come with DHT tubes.  (I dont think a little microphonics is a bad thing btw)

I still make the 300B/45 DHT preamp on order - these tubes have minimal microphonics - its there but constrained and these preamps do have a "magical" quality -it's tube euphonics but still very accurate and engaging.

But in my experience the king of preamp tubes is the 6SN7 tube, and I'm still in awe of it as much as I was 30 years ago. I have used hundreds of other tubes for line-stage circuits and no other tube has the balance of sound capability and technical performance.

It does require good circuitry to get the best from it , and it is possible to get absolute perfect specifications from it.

Which I have done , the later Supratek 6SN7 designs were near perfect in terms of frequency response and drive capability (low output impedance)

But a preamp must be more than perfect technically, it must provide the ideal interface between source and power amps , and create a sound that is realistic and musical.

I believe the difference between a good preamp and the hundreds of ordinary preamps is the magnitude of dimensionality between them- quite simply the better the preamp the bigger the 3D effect. The sound recreation is just deeper/wider, more open , more exciting . Its more "real".

(Strangely, in my experience , not everyone can hear differences of dimensionality, or its not important to them,  some people rate bass slam and frequency extension over realism- these are the people who dont hear the effect of a good phase coherent preamp and think a passive , or no preamp is all you need.)

So where are we at with Supratek preamp design?

The first thing I do when I finish a preamp is connect it to an oscilloscope and run a 1Khz square wave through it. On the scope a 1Khz square wave will , if the preamp has perfect response and can easily drive the load, be a perfectly straight upended rectangle , which indicates flat response from 20Hz to 20KHz. Its the most basic requirement for a preamp.

All the Supratek preamps over the last 20 years have been able to easily pass the square wave test, but it doesn't mean that a perfect square wave is the defining characteristic of sound quality.

I've been saying for years that phase coherence is the key to dimensionality , and this is what enables one to hear the difference between two preamps that have the same square wave character.

Gen3 is the result of going over all of the Supratek designs and re-designing for maximum phase coherence.  Not so much a re-design but more of a refining process, the circuit is changed but essentially it's still a two stage 6SN7 design that is transformer coupled .

How big a difference?

Well if you hear in 3D , and have speakers that image well , you will like it, and might even find it a very big deal.

The line-stage is quieter , gain is still highish-for dynamics , but a switchable gain control is supplied if gain needs to be reduced to suit high gain power amps.

The whole rationale for Supratek over the last 20+ years was to design the most realistic sounding preamp, nothing more/nothing less.

I've built over 500 preamps and countless prototypes investigating all sorts of concepts and approaches.

I seriously doubt that there is a preamp concept that I haven't tried.

Gen3 is the pinnacle of all my work , and in my opinion is as good as a preamp can be.

It's a pure tube based design , with minimal solid state components , and  I've made just as much effort to ensure very long term reliability and lifetime as I have towards sound quality.

I've named it Gen3 as I believe it is the third and final stage of Suprateks evolution .

I'm not sure where high end audio will go in the next decade - it is under pressure from all sorts of influences.

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do something that I had a great deal of satisfaction doing, and I hope I can continue to bring the engagement and enjoyment of owning a Supratek preamp to people who love music.

Next blog  a more detailed explanation of the design for linestage and phono preamps.

Customers response to owning a Supratek preamp.

Over the years I've received very many positive comments about the Supratek preamps, here's just a few comments from 2018/19.

Supratek preamps are available at short notice now, email me for details on how you can own a preamp that will completely transform your system.

Michael,

The preamp is everything I hoped for and more. The sound is engaging and very musical. I am happy that I had you build the Cortese LCR preamp for me.

Looks good. Sounds great. Truly amazing.

Hi Mick

Absolutely fantastic pre that will only improve with time and better tubes. 

My Cortese has never sounded so good - dead quiet background and magic sound in my system

Thanks for the info. I have many good 6922 tubes. Will try. May try the 6h30 also. You should know that the preamp is now in place of $70,000 of preamp plus 5 k of cables!  I think I prefer it already and it’s not yet settled in. Sure is nice to have one component. I’ve always used separates. I will update you as things progress. 

Mick - It is going well.  It has gotten more refined and the sound is cleaner and more detailed, but still has good weight.  I am really enjoying it, and have not yet tried my other preamp.  I will wait until it has been a couple of months to insure complete break in.  In my expereince it takes a lot longer than people think to really get a component to optimal performance.  Also, I am preferring the ypsilon phono stage at this point, but am alternating since I have two arms, with one in the cortese phono and one through the ypsilon into the line stage.  the cortese is still breaking in, so I will wait a while before I know for sure.  The cortese phono section is quieter than the ypsilon phono.  Thanks for checking in!

I borrowed a pair of NOS WE 300B from a friend and put in the Preamp.  To cut the story, this combination sounds really georgous.  That is the sound exactly what I am looking for.  Thanks for the great creation.

I can tell you that I don’t think there is any way I could get better sound from any other pre. I have had so many ‘high end’ components over the years but no singular component gives me as much joy as the Supratek LCR Cortese. The combination with my Michell turntable and Soundsmith Paua MkII cartridge is superb. My biggest problem is trying to stop a listening session once I start.

The phono sounds astonishing

Over the years I have changed a lot of my gear but, your preamp is a  permanent fixture in my setup. I love the way it sounds and looks!

ATTN: Mick Maloney

Greetings from the USA!

I  picked up a vintage Chardonnay off eBay this week, SN 207, dated August 2003. I couldn't resist as it ticked all of the important design boxes for me:

(a) 6SN7 driver (my favorite preamp tube)

(b) tube rectification

(c) PS shunt regulation

Just listened to it this evening... what a wonderful musical experience! 

Generation 3 Supratek Preamp.

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 of Magico speakers when used with a Supratek.
It would seem the Magicos really need a phase coherent preamplifier to get the best out of them, to get them to become multi dimensional and fill a room with music.


I've recently reviewed all of my designs going back many years and after building many prototypes I've made some changes to the basic design which I am very happy with.

3D imaging is even better with even more distinct separation , wider width and deeper depth.

I've also managed to get noise levels to the lowest levels possible with a tube preamplifier.

This helps with the already outstanding dynamics , especially the micro-dynamic performance.

Gain had been decreased by a small amount, but is still fully adjustable.

I like these benefits so much I'm calling the latest range of Suprateks Generation 3 .

For a short while I'm offering a Gen3 Cortese , with moving coil phono stage for $US3000- incredible value when it competes directly against a famous $30,000 phono only stage.

(Yes one of my customers has both and is very happy with the Cortese.)

Class D is affordable and sounds as good or better the SS/Valve why buy anything else

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 introduces phase problems , which screw up imaging and soundstaging , all the 3D stuff that helps to recreate realism.

Its weird to me, but there's a big pile of audiophiles that don't hear in 3D , or they dont think its important.

To them its all about frequency response, power and slam. Or detail- lots of it. 

Which is fine, audio is subjective and whatever turns you on is right for you. 

From my perspective however, this is a way of listening that is less subjective and more objective , more listening with the ears and not with the heart.

Let me post this page from a book I'm reading at the moment- Greg Milner's 
Perfecting Sound Forever, An Aural History of Recorded Music. (you can click on page to enlarge)

Its more about digital V analog than ClassD but it makes the same point, albeit in a rather oversimplified way.  That the newest, greatest technology isn't. 

Another great quote from the book- "digital perfects approximation , analog approximates perfection". 

You cant tell people that imaging and soundstaging are more significant to realism than frequency response and power , and I suspect these people dont want to listen to realism anyway- they want to listen to what they think is important in hi fi - slam/power/detail or whatever turns them on.

Fortunately there's just as many audiophiles who value a more holistic, ethereal way of listening that is focused on realism. 

And these audiophiles value equipment that delivers , whether its tubes or solid state , maybe even class D one day, or an evolved version of it that can actually do 3D sounds. 

I'm convinced that the closest way to realism is to have at least one piece of tube/valve equipment in your system, and the best method is to use a high quality ,accurate (not warm!) tube preamp. 

I know from my experience the only way I could tolerate ClassD was with a tube preamp , but I'm not holding my breath waiting for the Class D guys to agree!