" I wanted you to know I'm bowled over with the Cabs performance. I love it, its without doubt the best Ive heard my system, not to mention the cosmetics! There's something special going on in my system now, the Levison 27 loves every bit of the Cab as I do!!"
"Awesome, thank you so much for the clarification. It sounds magnificent either way and I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience"
The Supratek preamps must have the best customer satisfaction rating , just about every customer reports nothing but total satisfaction with the sound of a Supratek in their system.
These comments are from this weeks completed preamps , but I have many hundreds of email reports just like this one. So what makes the Suprateks so different to any other tube preamp?
Design
Firstly, its all about design. I've been doing this for 40 years now, and there isnt a tube preamp design I haven't tried over the years.
The Supratek design has evolved over this period after many hundreds of designs were built and tested , which involved many thousands of hours listening .
They are over-engineered to be reliable and trouble free over the very long life you can expect from a Supratek preamp.
The power supplies are massive and big enough to be used in a very competent power amp.
Everything is geared towards the sound quality. While they may look like a million dollars , cosmetics are a secondary consideration - sound quality is everything and this comes from the circuit design .
Construction
The second factor is the method of construction . Its more than just point to point wiring . Every connection within the preamp is as short as possible , and its all hand wired so that each interconnecting component's lead wire is wrapped around the next connecting component.
A solid electrical connection is made before solder is applied. In theory , the preamp would work without any soldering at all.
No circuit boards are used for the preamp circuitry.
Consider a preamp built on circuit boards , as 90% are. All those holes into which components fit , have to be filled with tin/lead solder to make a connection.
Every connection is made through a tin/lead connection , hundreds if not thousands of them. There is no direct electrical connection between components , but through the multiple lead/tin connections.
People using circuit boards will tell you it makes no difference , I will humbly beg to differ.
Air Wiring .
This is a very contentious issue and if the Supratek preamps have had any criticism over the years, its always been about the internal wiring.
Rather than 2-dimensional circuit boards , the preamps are hard wired with solid core wire that is done in 3 planes , its not bundled into the corners or kept in tight formations.
The reason for this is primarily to keep the wiring as short as possible and to have uncompromised connections in free space.
This has a lot of advantages , primarily IT SOUNDS BETTER. I cant emphasize that enough.
You get a big 3D sound with a Supratek preamp, there's nothing 2 dimensional about it , its transparent, open and believable realism.
Again, its the difference between circuit boards and hardwiring .
Another advantage is that repairs and trouble shooting is very easy for a person who has a little knowledge of tube circuits.
Every connection can be easily traced and recognized.
These days technicians won't even look at a repair without a circuit diagram, and a repair almost always involves changing a circuit board for a new one , if it is available.
The Suprateks are an evolved design that is state of the art tube design, but it is not overly complex , or complicated with unnecessary, sound degrading extras such as digital volume readouts , or complex switching arrangements.
They are designed to last decades, and many Supratek preamps are into their 3rd decade of use.
Most of the bigger components in the preamps are held in place with silicone adhesives.
I believe there is a definite sonic advantage to this , probably due to resonance control, maybe also some magnetic eddy advantage .
Its actually just as strong as nuts and bolts . All the big aluminium buses you see on the highways, and ferries on the sea have their bodywork held together with silicone adhesives these days.
Components.
My website's article on Buying a Tube Preamp covers this pretty well.
This is just a short extract from it:
Audiophile capacitors, NOS tubes, “super” volume controls.
When a manufacturer makes a bigger deal out of available options than he does on the actual design of the preamp, be worried.
The design and construction of the preamplifier is far more critical and important than having the option of putting profit driven components in to a preamp.
The quality of the components used is important- paper in oil capacitors do sound different to polypropylene capacitors , but the difference is far less than the difference between a good circuit design and a poor outdated design.
A tired and unimaginative design from 1950 fitted with expensive capacitors will not come close to a modern, innovative design with good quality capacitors.
Similarly , you can spend a lot of money on volume controls, but you will never get a “better” sound than from a good quality Alps Blue pot. Different maybe, but certainly not better.
Circuit design and implementation is the beginning and end of quality sound.
Digital volume readouts might look nice, but in a tube preamp? No thanks.
Zen and the Art of Tube Preamps.
Back at the start of my tube passion I was heavily influenced by the Japanese designer/builders- Shishido, Sakuma , Shindo and others who published in the Japanese MJ magazine , well before the internet came along.
Shishido was more western orientated then Shindo and Sakuma who were more into "tone" . They didnt care much how a piece measured as long as it sounded "gorgeous" on their "full range" single driver speakers .
Shishido did take measurement into account, and while he wasn't fixated on it, his amps had to measure ok as well as sound very good, which they did.
Regardless of their approach , these guys loved building and listening to their work, they were artisans , with a real passion for what they were doing .
Never in a hurry, never compromising , never influenced by fashion or consumer demand , their sole intention was to get the maximum satisfaction and enjoyment from their tube equipment.
I like to think I have the same philosophy and have employed the same criteria throught my Supratek career.
I certainly would have made a lot more income had I been sensible and used circuit boards and employed workers to assemble them into my products.
But idealism is satisfying , and the high satisfaction rate and many hundreds of happy testimonials over the years is reward enough.
Would you rather have an amplifier built by one person with many years of experience, who loves what he is doing , or built by a nine to fiver who doesnt really want to be there?
Sakuma was very big on the "spiritual" aspect of design and build - a ZEN attitude if you will.
Does this make a difference to the actual sound realized?
I think it does , and it certainly guarantees a better designed and built product.
