SUPRATEK Amplifiers are completely hand built by a small team of 3 people and supervised by one person - Michael(Mick) Maloney in Western Australia, who alone is responsible and takes complete pride in the finished product. Mick has been involved in audio amplification design and listening to fine music for 30 years.

The SUPRATEK range of pre-amplifiers have achieved worldwide respect, sounding unlike any other pre-amplifier available. They are being purchased by discerning enthusiasts in the USA, Asia and Europe solely on the strength of the SUPRATEK reputation for unique sound. After years of development and evolvement each of the SUPRATEK preamps has become a classic that will be still be highly regarded and sought after many years into the future.

Supratek preamps are so different reviewers say things like: "

"  All the other preamps in-house are out of their depths by comparison. It's unfair to even go there. A premium valve preamp like the Supratek shifts your system into some kind of hyper drive - hyper not for speed but to indicate that you're not traveling in a linear fashion but entering an altogether different zone. All the familiar elements are in that zone but the colors are more intense, the lighting is more dramatic, the differences between small and large are bigger and, most importantly, how you feel about it all is similar to when you first fell in love. Intense. And new . "

CORTESE preamp and power supply $5000

Whilst other builders follow electronic theory and the latest design fashion, SUPRATEK concentrates on the preamps main purpose - to allow the essence of the music to flow unhindered into your stereo system. This is achieved by innovative design, meticulous construction and, most importantly, the fact that I've always been more of a music lover than a lover of "hi-fi" equipment. My 20 years of building tube electronics has always been based on achieving musical satisfaction rather than focusing on electrical parameters, such as frequency response, distortion etc.

The electrical performance of a preamp is still important, and the SUPRATEK preamps are excellent performers on the test bench, but it counts for little once the pre is playing your CD's or vinyl. All that counts then is the effect the preamp has on your system, and in turn, your auditory nerves and then finally your consciousness, where the joy of music comes alive. The preamplifier is, by far, the most important component in your system - it is where the drive and essence of the music comes from. I've proved over and over again that even the finest sources are greatly improved by a SUPRATEK preamplifier.

After many years, the SUPRATEK preamplifier range has finally evolved to 6 models-3 phono preamps with 3 linestage only versions. Within their respective price ranges these preamps are everything they should be - giving you the best possible sound at fantastic value for money.

The Cortese

CORTESE 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. Designs can only be truly tested for audio by building and listening to each one, and its possible combinations.

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.

In addition to the best of these designs, Kevin Covi has introduced startling new and innovative circuitry to the SUPRATEK designs.

The result has been worth all the effort. The CORTESE is a very fine preamp indeed. It has a tremendously natural sound that is just bursting with "aliveness". It sounds so far from an "electronic" sound that I still find myself getting lost in the music time after time. Foot-tapping is a good sign that a preamp is right, but the CORTESE also will put a smile on your dial and give you a feeling you haven't had from any other component.

I'm not going to go in depth describing the circuit, but while other designers chase bandwidth and perfect square waves on oscilloscopes, Supratek/Covi has developed a circuit that just sounds right- it comes from designers more interested in getting 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.

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.

The Sauvignon

The line stage version of the CORTESE is the SAUVIGNON- it uses the same line-stage as the CORTESE and a seperate matching power supply.

Review here: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/supratek2/sauvignon.html

The Cabernet DUAL&SINGLE

CABERNET DAUL $US5000

Our work in designing and building very high quality custom tube active crossovers led to the development of the Cabernet DUAL preamplifier- this is the most sonically advanced preamplifier available today, and is in many ways ahead of it's time. The DUAL has two seperate preamplifier sections with two sets of outputs. Both sections are high bandwidth, full range preamps with low output impedance capable of driving any power amplifier . One preamplifier stage uses a 6SN7 driving a 101D Directly Heated Triode which is transformer coupled to the output. DHT tubes are famous for their inherant transperancy, but this application takes the sonics into new areas of unvieled clarity and vividness. Only a DHT tube can provide real holographic imaging that is the ultimate in musicality . The sonics are liquid and frightenly lifelike with fantastic speed and resolution. This is not a slow and warm" tube" sound , but a sound that is close to the life of the music.

Pure Emotion.

The other preamplifier stage uses a 6SN7 driving a 6H30 tube in White Follower configuration. This gives superb response both in bass and treble bandwidths , and gives state of the art performance into any amplifier.

Perhaps not as musically satisfying as the 6SN7-101D , it nevertheless has deep effortless bass and extended bandwidth way beyond audibilty.

Having two seperate preamplifier stages opens up the possibility for bi-amping using dedicated preamps/power amps for bass and mid/treble.

You will need a speaker that is capable of being bi-amped, ie the crossover will be split into bass and mid/treble sections with the terminals for each section brought out to the outside of speaker cabinet , so there will be two sets of terminals.

You will also need two separate stereo amplifiers or 4 monoblocks . Ideally one would use a tube amp for the mid/treble and perhaps a solid state amp for the bass. Both preamp outputs will drive both tube and solid state amps.

The preamp has a separate gain control for the 6H30 section mounted on back panel, and master control for both sections is on front panel.

However both preamp stages can be used entirely independently of each other - indeed you may just wish to use one section to drive your power amps.

The response to the Dual has been overwhelming- there is no other audio device that can make such a dramatic difference to the sound of your system.

For those who cant utilise the biamp features of the Dual we offer the Cabernet Single.  Supratek has been using directly heated triodes in preamps since the early 90's and we were the first company to offer the 101D in a commercial preamp, after the success of our 300B preamps.

The Cabernet Single uses 6SN7 and 101D tubes , but can also be ordered with your favorite DHT tube. Choose from the 45,300B or 101D (standard) or if you would like to hear the lush smooth tones of a genuine 1930's NOS tube we can supply the single with 6SN7 and 33 tubes, complete with 2 extra sets of NOS 33 to last the lifetime of the preamp.

The Cabernet Single preamplifier sells for $4500.

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/supratek/cabernet.html

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/supratek3/dualcabernet.html

for review on CABERNET DUAL

The CABERNET DUAL was awarded best product of 2006 by www.6moons.com - the DUAL is ahead of it's time, but a worthy winner .

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/bo06/srajan.html

  See the Gallery page for pictures.

The phono equipped version of the Cabernet Dual is the GRANGE.

This comes with a high overload moving coil cartridge capable phono stage derived from the famous Cortese phono stage.

The most desirable preamp available? Nothing else looks like it and everything else struggles to come up to it's sound quality.

GRANGE- $US9000