Just ordered a Supra!

[Fing]

I had a fun 20 mins chatting with Mikhail, speccing up a high voltage Supra for my newly acquired R10's.

After saying 'yes' to most of the options (mostly having Blackgates all around), two things that were sticking points for me were the Plitron transformer ($900 vs $250 for an upgraded Supra Transformer) and Audio Note coupling caps (again around $7-900 - bit hazy here, vs $360 for V-Cap Coupling Caps).

My question for those who have been able to do a comparison, is what difference does a Plitron transformer or Audio Note coupling caps make and is the extra cost worth it? If you had to choose one upgrade, which would it be?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this )

Cheers,

Wai

[Guest sacd lover]

Hi Wai, first congratulations.

I have had my Supra for a couple years now and the one pictured remains my favorite amp.

The Supra I have is one of the original steel chassis types, as you can see. Basically, the amp was pure stock and was upgraded to use 6bl7gta/6bx7gt output tubes run at a higher voltage and bias. I do not have any upgraded caps of any type and the just normal/ stock Supra transformer. The amp is still the best sounding amp I have owned .... or heard.

You already have spec'd the high voltage version, which IMO is the best upgrade you can do to this amp. Even pure stock, with the high voltage operation, the amp is transformed. I have been thrilled with my amp even without any other upgrades.

Since you wish to go further the coupling caps are going to make a bigger difference than the transformer. In an amp of this quality you do want to upgrade the coupling caps. If I were upgrading, I would do the V-caps for added transparency. This is a very, very nice cap and I am thinking about sending in my paper-in oil cap MPX3 to add the V-caps myself. I may add them to my Woo 6 as well. The Audio Notes I have no experience with.

The Plitron transformers are excellent but even the stock Supra transformer in my amp is quiet and reliable and has more than enough output to drive any 6bl7gt/6bx7gt tube combo with lots of headroom to spare. The Plitron is dead silent mechanically and VERY likely has a slightly lower noise floor. But, unless you sit very close to the amp when you listen, or the Plitrons look is important to you .... I would go with the $250 transformer upgrade; or even just keep the stock Supra transformer. I do love the Plitrons look and I must admit I added a Plitron to one of my Extremes as much because of the look as I did for the cool running and super quiet operation.

I assume you want the best sound and VALUE and would rather not spend extra unless you feel the upgrade will definitely improve the maps sound quality. I can tell you the basic amp sounds so good in high voltage form the addition of the blackgates and the V-CAPS should be close to as good as it gets. For me, given the choices you offered, do the two lower priced upgrades. Uless you have two amps to sit and do a direct comparison with I dont think you would ever miss the more expensive upgrades. In an amp of this quality I do think you should DEFINITELY do one of the coupling cap upgrades.

There you go .... I hope this helps.

[Fing]

5687 - this is exactly the sort of reply I was hoping for. Thank you VERY much!

I have already gone for the v-cap and transformer upgrade - I was just obsessing about whether it was worth it from a bang for buck perspective to further upgrade to Audio Note / Plitrons.

I have to agree with you - the plitrons are just awesome looking and have that nuclear reactor thing going with them.

But in the end, I feel that the money would be better spent obtaining a better source and I've asked Mikhail to investigate how much / possible it would be to get a S&B Transformer Volume Control in there instead of a stepped attenuator.

Thank you again ;-)

[tkam]

I would stick with the v-caps the Audio Notes are terribly expensive and probably not any better.

[mjg]

sounds like an awesome amp, congrats.

[Icarium]

Yeah I dunno about the difference between v-caps and audionote.. though I have audionote in my SDS myself. They sound great. But how much better? I don't know.

As long as you are going at up to v-cap in interstage and upgradnig the transformer to the 250 dollar level sounds like you have your bases covered as I think those are two of the

more if not most important upgrade areas.

Did you consider the used balanced supra that dwglghlgh or whatever is selling on head-fi? It's pretty upgraded and if he is willign to let it go for 3k which is what he paid roughly (I don't know if

any of the upgrades were after him buying it) then it might be a great deal.

[philodox]

If I ever get a singlepower amp made I will probably go with something other than blackgates [maybe elna silmic IIs or something similar], V-Caps [or something comparible] and the upgraded iron. It seems to me that upgrading a transformer down the road would be a much bigger pain in the ass than upgrading caps. I also think that the upper strata of caps is more than likely a little overrated.

I'd also love him to build it in one of the old toaster style enclosures. Am I the only one that prefers them that way?

[Icarium]

Yeah they say teflon v-caps which is what he uses is on par with the audionote silver. Eh I have peace of mind though ;p

You should talk Mikhail into hooking up some Tamura iron ;p

[Dusty Chalk]

Welcome to Head-Case! Greatest second post ever. Alright, maybe not, but greatest one that I remember.

Sorry about your thin skin and all that, but I suspect that will come later. I don't think you're going to get any crap for anything you've posted so far.

I'd also love him to build it in one of the old toaster style enclosures. Am I the only one that prefers them that way?

Nope. I love my toaster-style enclosure.

[philodox]

Nope. I love my toaster-style enclosure.

Must be a bitch with the fingerprints though.

Earl seriously needs to replace the dinky knob on his though. I mean, with that much real estate you could go with a 10" diameter knob if you wanted to!

[PFKMan23]

Must be a bitch with the fingerprints though.

Earl seriously needs to replace the dinky knob on his though. I mean, with that much real estate you could go with a 10" diameter knob if you wanted to!

The newer chassis stuff being piano black is even bitchier.

[Dusty Chalk]

Must be a bitch with the fingerprints though.

'tis.

Earl seriously needs to replace the dinky knob on his though. I mean, with that much real estate you could go with a 10" diameter knob if you wanted to!

Or a whammy bar! Or that lever that Conan pulls for Walker Texas Ranger clips.

The newer chassis stuff being piano black is even bitchier.

Actually, piano black is really easy to hide fingerprints on just by not lighting them directly. In ambient lighting, they just disappear.

[grawk]

Welcome to Head-Case! Greatest second post ever. Alright, maybe not, but greatest one that I remember.

Sorry about your thin skin and all that, but I suspect that will come later. I don't think you're going to get any crap for anything you've posted so far.Nope. I love my toaster-style enclosure.

Toaster for me too. Tho I will eventually recase mine in wood.

[Fing]

I just bought an AKG K1000 and realise that this phone is a bit 'special' in a number of ways.

Listening to it out of a fairly modest headphone amp (Yamamoto HA-02 - pushing out around 300mW) I was quite impressed. Very nice musical sound, but lacking refinement.

I decided to hook it up to my 300B monoblocks that put out 8 Watts and yup - huge improvement.

I was wondering whether the 'higher voltage' Supra would be able to match this level of performance on K1000's?

Would getting the Supra balanced make any difference?

I talked to Mikhail about using a Supra XLR to drive a pair of K1000 and he mentioned adding another transformer and valve stage....

I'm wondering whether it'd be worth it.

[Guest sacd lover]

I just bought an AKG K1000 and realise that this phone is a bit 'special' in a number of ways.

Listening to it out of a fairly modest headphone amp (Yamamoto HA-02 - pushing out around 300mW) I was quite impressed. Very nice musical sound, but lacking refinement.

I decided to hook it up to my 300B monoblocks that put out 8 Watts and yup - huge improvement.

I was wondering whether the 'higher voltage' Supra would be able to match this level of performance on K1000's?

Would getting the Supra balanced make any difference?

I talked to Mikhail about using a Supra XLR to drive a pair of K1000 and he mentioned adding another transformer and valve stage....

I'm wondering whether it'd be worth it.

Balanced would give you twice the voltage swing and an improvement with all your headphones. But you arent going to get 8 watts. If you want to power K1000's, for what you paid in upgrades and complexity, you could buy a high power Extreme with a seperate power supply that uses 6528's .... or other high power tubes .... for essetially the same price. If you can use your monoblocks for the K1000's I would. If you dont want to, ask for the price of the balanced upgraded Supra vs buying a second amp like the high power Extreme specifically for the K1000's.

[Dusty Chalk]

I just bought an AKG K1000 and realise that this phone is a bit 'special' in a number of ways.

Listening to it out of a fairly modest headphone amp (Yamamoto HA-02 - pushing out around 300mW) I was quite impressed. Very nice musical sound, but lacking refinement.

I decided to hook it up to my 300B monoblocks that put out 8 Watts and yup - huge improvement.

I was wondering whether the 'higher voltage' Supra would be able to match this level of performance on K1000's?

Why don't you just stick with the 300B monoblocks? It just seems that if you're trying to drive earspeakers (AKG's term for the K1000's) with a headphone amp, it's like trying to stick a square peg into a round hole.

Sorry if I'm repeating myself, it's a pet peeve of mine -- people keep wanting to drive all their headphones and their K1000's with their headphone amp, but only their speakers with their speaker amp, when it really should be "all their headphones with their headphone amp, and their speakers and their K1000's with their speaker amp(s)".

If not the 300B monoblocks, something else then.

[Icarium]

Supra won't be enough. You need a 2 stage amp like Tkam's or darkless's.

[Fing]

Thank you again for the replies - all very helpful information )

Cheers!

[Fing]

nt