Questions & Answers

Why do I have to wait for a Supratek?

All the pres and power amps are built by a small team of 3 perfectionists supervised by one person - Mick Maloney, the owner of Supratek. The products are truly handbuilt , usually with custom requirements, with a rigourous inspection procedure observed during construction. If a "mass-production" assembly was initiated it would be necessary to employ workers who would not be able to consistently apply the same attention to detail and implementation of the so-important little things such as ensuring complete wrapping of terminal connections before soldering. To really build a great musical instrument you have to enjoy doing it(preferably listening to music).

Why are they better?

Unique designs - not from an engineering point of view (it is easy to do this) but from the experience of 20 years of building every conceivable type of tube audio, with the overriding aim of producing a sound that is purely musical. 90% of hi-fi is designed by engineers and it all sounds the same - electronic. Supratek amplifiers are different. Rich musical liquidity is often used to descibe the signature.

Construction - see above.

Materials & Components - the materials used in the cabinet and chassis are sourced from first class craftsmen with the same commitment to quality I follow. The chrome plating, on top of 1.2mm copper plate chassis's is first class. The jarrah wood cabinets are CNC machined and then hand assembled for perfect finish. Components for the electrical circuits are chosen purely for their sound characteristics- there is no restriction on economics, nor is there a blind adhesion to "fashion" components that are often used to give credibility to a poor design. All the super components in the world wont fix a second rate design.

What sort of life can I expect from a Supratek product?

All Supratek products are designed to be still functioning as new when you have left the planet. Except for tubes of course, but you can still expect to get 10,000- 20,000 hours life (except for some output tubes) At two hours per day this is 13-26 years. How can I do this when the average Japanese consumer product has a lifetime of maybe 10 years? Excellent component quality and extremely over engineered eg using a 5 watt resistor that is dissipating 0.5W. The penny pinchers at the major electronics firms wont allow this. Another example is the use of electrolytic capacitors- the typical amplifier uses very many of these. Apart from the woeful sound characteristics these are shortlived. Supratek doesn't use more than 1 or 2 per amp where they are sonically non damaging and are chosen to last the distance. Some units dont use them at all.

What happens if something goes wrong?

It shouldn't but if it does getting it sorted takes priority - the best way is to get it fixed in your home state- while Supratek products are unique they aren't complex and any good technician should be able to solve any problems. With email I can send circuit diagrams and discuss any problems with the technician. The robustness of all Supratek products means that any problems will be minor. I am setting up a circle of good technicians around the globe as I'm able. Naturally I pay for any repairs.

Why are they so inexpensive?

Mostly because of the US- Australian exchange rate- One US Dollar is worth 2 Aussie Dollars. I also run a very lean operation -low overheads result from not having to cover the cost of a marketing department. All my efforts go into designing and building musical instruments- the reputation of the products do all the selling. Direct selling off the web also drastically reduces prices- the typical distributor, dealer operation triples the manufacturers price. You can compare Supratek products with others costing three times the price. There is also the factor of an ethical price for an item- I could put a $50,000 price tag on an amp and maybe sell a couple a year, but it would not be right.

Tube Rolling?

All the Supratek products are supplied with very good quailty tubes- most are current production tubes and all are available from good suppliers. Many enthusiasts like to "tube roll" exchanging these tubes for New Old Stock (NOS). These tubes can sound different from the stock tubes- very often with good results as these tubes were built by very experienced operaters with many years of experience. However they can be very expensive and a lucrative business has evolved supplying NOS-many of these suppliers have very limited tube experience and often give misleading and inaccurate advice. An ECC32 IS NOT a 6SN7, neither is a CV181. Please check with me before substituting tubes with unknowns

Modifications

There are some offering modifications to audio equipment. Some of thse people know what they are doing- most don't. I've had 3 preamplifiers come back for repairs after "modifications"- some of the workmanship was shameful. Don't get talked into believing that a handful of Black Gate capacitors is magically going to transform your equipment. Design is everything-you cant get a side valve to perform like an overhead cam motor, no matter how many go fast pieces you put on it.

Upgrades

It is a fact of life that improvement is always sought. I believe the Suprateks products are as good as I can build them at the moment, but whenever I think I have hit the wall,eventually something else comes along- usually something subtle, sometimes something of significance. I like to think of the Supratek range as classics and believe they will still be respected many years from now and I don't like to change them just for the opportunity to present a "new" model every year. However justifiable improvements do get implemented and these changes can be incorporated into customers products, at cost of components and labour. Service and your continued enjoyment is our priority. Upgrades can only be done within the same product though- please don't ask me to upgrade a Syrah to a Cortese

Balanced operation

I often get asked about the advantages of balanced operation-my reply is based on the following:

Balanced/unbalanced is a conentious subject. It comes from the pro audio world where they need it to balance out the noise pickup from very long cables.
True balance involves either using balancing transfomers or turning a Single Ended cicuit (as most preamps are) into a push pull circuit with double the components, circuitry etc- this is the only way to achieve "true" balanced throughout the preamp.
There's a lot of hype about it, with a lot of so called balanced operation being psuedo balanced, which is basically having an XLR socket wired to accept a balanced signal and turning it back to unbalanced.
Personally I prefer Single Ended operation every time- there's an ease and effortlesss about it, wheras true balanced sounds more electronic to me, especially the push pull types of operation.
One area where it is useful is in helping with RF noise in the big cities- it is not an isue for me in my country town isolation, but places like NY benefit from it and in my mind the best way to use balanced is to take it off the output transformer of a preamp, which fortunately we can do with the Supratek pres- it is true and perfect balanced with the minimum of circuitry to degrade the sound.
( there's virtually no circuitry!)
One balancing point in a preamp is all that is necessary- the output transformer turns the single ended circuit into a balanced circuit with two phases and the  noise common to both channels (hum, RF etc) is greatly reduced.
Going for balanced throughout is sonic overkill that does more harm than good IMO- it has been a successful marketing campaign by some companies, but it is marketed to sell amps.

The Cortese,Sauvignon, Grange and Cabernet come standard with balanced/unbalanced outputs- there is a significant increase in quietness with the balanced output - but with the effortlessness and spatial presentation retained.