US $5000

Design is everything in audio. There is no reward in using expensive and fashionable components in a preamplifier if the design concept is flawed or inadequate.

Parafeed, active loads, choke loads, direct coupling, mu followers, SRPP, transformer coupling, capacitor coupling, LCR RIAA stages, CR RIAA stages, LR RIAA stages, ultrapath, resistor plate loads, CCS's, resistor/battery/fet/LED/diode/tube biasing, cap bypassing, unbypassed- the list goes on and on -in all sorts of combinations! Over 20 plus years, Supratek has built and listened to all these designs and found the very best combinations of circuit designs and circuits.

2009/2010 was a watershed for Supratek- Kevin Covi and Mick Maloney sat back and took over a year to completely rethink the Cortese.The phono was redesigned and lowR cathode bias, grid chokes and other innovative design features were finally incorporated into the design after many prototypes were thoroughly investigated and listened to.  Because the phono improvement was so significant we applied many of these innovations to the linestage with similiar results.

While other designers chase bandwidth and perfect square waves on oscilloscopes, Kevin Covi and Mick Maloney have developed a circuit that just sounds right- it comes from designers not only interested in good technical performance , but also commited to achieving a sound that your inner emotions will relate to and send shivers up your spine - spiritual, classical, folk, rock, blues - it doesn't matter what sort of music it is - if there is true EMOTION and ART in the music the CORTESE will convey it.

CORTESE uses a special output transformer especially designed for the circuit , has a much stronger and "purer" power supply using tube rectification and regulation and is considerably more difficult to build.

The power supply is strong enough to drive a power amplifier! The phono section is an all new design with accuracy AND free flowing dynamics- not always easy to combine. It features a parafeed transformer output using an exotic core transformer. It is designed primarily for low output moving coil cartridges but is adjustable for cartridges up to 5.0mV.. No step-up transformer is needed.

The phono stage uses 6688 and ECC88 tubes-the line stage uses 6SN7 tubes. The power supply uses 5AR4 rectifier and 6L6GC regulator tubes. All tubes are NOS.

The CORTESE comes with remote volume, balanced and unbalanced outputs, with provision for bi amping with the unbalanced output. It also has adjustable gain on the line stage.

Like all the SUPRATEK preamps the CORTESE will drive any power amp whether solid state or tube. It works particulary well with solid state amps, imparting an organic musicality to the system.

From New York to Seoul, the CORTESE has turned the hi-fi world upside down, producing a more realistic, natural sound than any other preamp available. Word of mouth has meant that demand has exceeded supply, but if you are fortunate enough to be able to wait to own one of these handcrafted instruments, you will be rewarded with close to perfection.