Hooked up the Supratek preamp back to my system and everything just sounds sooooooo much better. When I said everything sounds better, I mean everything. Bass actually sounds more like heavy hitting bass to me again. I could feel the atmosphere being created in my core (bass sets the mood of the music for me). Its not clarity, but I don’t want to call this naturalness either. But something about the Supratek just breathes life into my music. Like when I was using the Schiit preamps, the color of my music feels grey. Then day 1 coming back to the Supratek preamp, I could see blue, I could see red, I could see yellow, I am feeling emotions again from listening to music. Don’t know if that’s the power of DHT, 45 tubes, or just the Supratek preamp in general (or maybe a little bit of all of the mentioned?), but music got me feeling like a human being again and it feels really good to experience these emotions again. I know I am comparing a entry level preamp to another preamp that cost thousands of dollars, but fuuuuuuudge I forgot the jump of performance between entry-level and whatever level the Supratek Cabernet DHT is supposed to be. The jump of performance is really huge lol (at least to my views after using entry level for a month and going back to the Supratek). People said don’t sleep on your preamp, because it can bottleneck the audio chain. They are right, you really can’t sleep on your preamp and got to make sure it synergize right in your audio chain and tune to your preference. Also remember what the Johnny (Supratek repair guy) told me about after the Supratek preamp its really just preference at that point. Because after the Supratek Cabernet price point, the jump in performance is very costly (10K plus) and the preamp is going to tune to a certain preference. If I don’t like whatever preference the next preamp is and I paid that $10K plus, then I just gotta hold that. Whatever preamp I am looking next after the Supratek, I should really know what I want from my music. I honestly currently don’t know what I really want because the Supratek is really hitting the right spots on what I want from a preamp. I will probably get a better idea once I become more experience with speakers, but for now the Supratek preamp is rocking my world.
Another thing I really appreciate the Supratek after using the Schiit preamps for about a month besides everything sounding much better and music sounds more lively to me is that my Polk Speakers sounds bigger again. I am not too sure if its because if the Supratek got more gains than the Schiit preamp, but my Polk R200 speakers sound huge again and I am really digging it!
^ This is what I wrote when I change my mind on selling my Supratek back in January. Thank god I changed my mind before I sold this preamp. I would’ve regretted this the most if I sold this. It’s because I really don’t appreciate preamp and undervalue them. I don’t know why I keep doing it, but I really underestimate that good sound the Supratek really bring to the table.
Why am I talking about this again?
I don’t know why, but I just randomly remembered my Polk R200 being hooked up to the Supratek vs being hooked up to the NITSCH Magni Piety. I bragged that the Platimon speaker sounded really freaking good with an entry level power amp and said this is crazy. Then, I really thought about it and remembered to myself that I am undervaluing my equipment again. I don’t know why I keep forgetting about the preamp, but I just keep doing it. So, even though its a weekday, I want to do a quick comparison if I change my Supratek preamp to the NITSCH Magni Piety preamp to see how much of a sound difference there really is…
Well, its pretty similar to my impression back in January. With the NITSCH Magni Piety in my system as the preamp, music sounds lifeless to me. It doesn’t sound bad per say, but it did not sound enjoyable. Mids sounded lifeless and boring. I say that because female vocals sounded good, but never really grabbed my attention. Electric guitar sounded bleh. Drums at least sounded really good still. Everything sounded more clutter and soundstage seems more flatten together. Resolution seems still pretty good, but not as clear as I remember what the Platimon could actually sound like. Imaging took a hit as well. The imaging is still good, but not as pinpoint. Soundstage width is still the same and I think I am still getting the same amount of details. Its just harder to hear it as things are more congested in the music. Music seems like it got brighter, but that isn’t the right word I want to use. Music just sounded less real to me I guess and there is more of a disconnect with me and the music.
So I put the Supratek Cabernet 45 tube preamp back to my system. Now, music sounds much better. Mids sounds much better to me. A little hard to describe in words, but female vocals seems to have more texture in them and a warmth in their vocals that I really like. Female vocals sounds much more complete to me with the Supratek preamp. On the NITSCH Magni Piety, I went from “its pretty good, but kinda bright for some reason” to the Supratek Cabernet 45 tube to “omg, I really love the way she sounds. This is really beautiful!” For electric guitar, my crunch is back and it sounds more clean. Maybe because I am able to hear the electric guitar a lot better with the extra help of separation from the Supratek. Soundstage gets more depth to it which really helps backup vocals for me. The Supratek just overall sounds bigger, but that might be because of the XLR input I am using from my DAC to the Supratek to provide more juice. Overall, similar to my January impression, the Supratek just breathes more life into my music.
So to summarize on what I learned what my Supratek 45 tube preamp adds to my system:
- Make Midrange much more lovely and honestly more real to me.
- Soundstage depth gets deeper
- Helps with instrumental separation and that overall helps me hear more details in the music
- Helps with clarity
The Supratek Cabernet 45 Tube Preamp adds more “soul” into my audio chain and help me forget I am listening to a digital system. There are probably more benefits as I said it help tighten bass when I first use it with my headphone amp. Its the weekday and a Monday, so I wanted to keep this short. I wrote this down so my bonehead learned to appreciate this preamp already and that will help me figure out a wonderful powerful power amp to go along with this preamp to complete my dream Platimon setup.
I also know I am doing this unfair comparison to the magni piety that cost $150 vs the Supratek Cabernet 45 Tube preamp that cost over 20x the price. I just need a base preamp vs my current preamp to help me realize how important a preamp is to my system and how things could get really bad if I bottleneck my preamp.
Current chain: EMM Labs NS1 > [AES] Mojo Audio Mystique EVO B4B 21 > [AES] Custom 45/6SN7 Tube Only Supratek Cabernet DHT > [RCA] Schiit Vidar 2 > Mon Acoustics Platimon VC One
When I tested the NITSCH MAGNI PIETY: same chain except… NITSCH MAGNI PIETY Preamp > [RCA] Schiit Vidar 2 > Mon Acoustics Platimon VC One