I Am Seeking a Bit More of the CJ GOLDEN GLOW. Please Share Your Thoughts On What Newer CJ Separates to Consider

[paolo]

@Harris4crna
I live about 3000 miles away from Vu's establishment so only home demos for me.
I'd love to visit Deja Vu someday but that's unlikely to happen.

Even after just a relatively few hours spent with the a40V I can say it has met and exceeded my expectations.

 

[paolo]

Sometimes "exceeded expectations" lead to revised expectations. As impressive as the Synthesis a40V was, and it was certainly impressive, I decided to return it and get back into Conrad Johnson. I'm expecting delivery of a brand new Classic 62SE. The Synthesis was amazing in many ways but ultimately my wife and I felt it was a bit too forward sounding in our small dedicated listening room. We both prefer our music to be a bit more laid back. The Synthesis does kick some serious ass though, and is a terrific deal for the right ears. Plus it's got an excellent built-in DAC as a bonus.

 

[Harris4crna]

Sometimes "exceeded expectations" lead to revised expectations. As impressive as the Synthesis a40V was, and it was certainly impressive, I decided to return it and get back into Conrad Johnson. I'm expecting delivery of a brand new Classic 62SE. The Synthesis was amazing in many ways but ultimately my wife and I felt it was a bit too forward sounding in our small dedicated listening room. We both prefer our music to be a bit more laid back. The Synthesis does kick some serious ass though, and is a terrific deal for the right ears. Plus it's got an excellent built-in DAC as a bonus.

Enjoy your new purchase. Never got the impression as being forward, but rooms and speakers truly can make a difference. The one thing.that does ponder me the loudness of the buzz upon warm up. Upon purchasing, I don't recall it being so loud. It goes away only with a slight hum following warm up. Other than that, I love this amp.

 

[paolo]

Enjoy your new purchase. Never got the impression as being forward, but rooms and speakers truly can make a difference. The one thing.that does ponder me the loudness of the buzz upon warm up. Upon purchasing, I don't recall it being so loud. It goes away only with a slight hum following warm up. Other than that, I love this amp.

Thank you sir. I surely will. And oh yeah, rooms and speakers can make substantial differences, for better or worse. An example in our home was a number of years when I had rich-sounding Chapman T-7 in our living room. Between the speakers was a large, cushiony sofa. Imaging and bass response was lovely.

But then. But then we reconfigured the living room and moved the audio system to an adjacent much smaller room. Using the same electronics I tried over and over again to get the T7's to sound at least "decent". Mission impossible so I reluctantly sold the Chapmans (May Stuart Rest In Peace) and found my dynamic speaker joy in Sonus Faber stand mounts. And later, planar joy to my great surprise, Magnepan LRS+ which sound better in the small room than the Maggie .7's I previously had.

RE: The "buzz" coming from your Synthesis: A suggestion , and forgive me if you've already considered this, but if the tube cage is on your Synthesis are the fasteners tight?

 

[Harris4crna]

Thank you sir. I surely will. And oh yeah, rooms and speakers can make substantial differences, for better or worse. An example in our home was a number of years when I had rich-sounding Chapman T-7 in our living room. Between the speakers was a large, cushiony sofa. Imaging and bass response was lovely.

But then. But then we reconfigured the living room and moved the audio system to an adjacent much smaller room. Using the same electronics I tried over and over again to get the T7's to sound at least "decent". Mission impossible so I reluctantly sold the Chapmans (May Stuart Rest In Peace) and found my dynamic speaker joy in Sonus Faber stand mounts. And later, planar joy to my great surprise, Magnepan LRS+ which sound better in the small room than the Maggie .7's I previously had.

RE: The "buzz" coming from your Synthesis: A suggestion , and forgive me if you've already considered this, but if the tube cage is on your Synthesis are the fasteners tight?

Enjoy your new amp. I have taken time to critically listen to the A40. I can now see how the sounds appears forward, but I always defined it as being full. Something my previous solid state amps lacked. I welcomed its presence.

The buzz intensifies only upon warm up. The cage is off. The sound is not affected.

 

[paolo]

How long before the buzz goes away?

I think if our listening room were much larger and we could sit further back from the speakes, the Synthesis might have worked for us. I'd characterize the amp as sounding big, bold, and full. Sorta Viva Italia! Red, fast Ferraris and Lambos.

 

[Harris4crna]

How long before the buzz goes away?

I think if our listening room were much larger and we could sit further back from the speakes, the Synthesis might have worked for us. I'd characterize the amp as sounding big, bold, and full. Sorta Viva Italia! Red, fast Ferraris and Lambos.

Buzz goes away after initial warm up. (Toggle of lights prior to use). Fair enough description. My system is in a small office, haha. Love it.

 

[paolo]

Buzz goes away after initial warm up. (Toggle of lights prior to use). Fair enough description. My system is in a small office, haha. Love it.

Well then, rock on sir, rock on!

 

[Harris4crna]

Synthesis FCO-300B Amplifier | Hifi Pig

HiFi News - Italian HiFi brand Synthesis will launch their new 300B valve amplifier next month at the Taipei HiFi Show, the Synthesis FCO-300B Amplifier

www.hifipig.com

Very interesting

 

[ThatStereoSound]

Meanwhile the ART88/108s have settled in, I do no longer hear any “teflon capacitor signature”, I have exchanged the supplied Gold Lions for Telefunkens in V1 and Amperex PQ in V2/V3 which do elevate performance, do sound more neutral, clear and extract more detail. I don’t notice any “golden glow” anymore. I still have KR KT88s on order to try.

Their soundstaging ability is uncanny, they throw the largest stage of any amps I ever owned before. Bass is not the tightest, nor the deepest, but very well defined, agile and dare I say natural. Plenty of slam / impact.

Speedwise they hold the middleground between the Atmaspheres and the KRs. They are clearer and more transparent then both of these. Tonally they are in between aswell, the Atmaspheres are brighter, the KRs darker.

They are just a delight to listen too, I can easily listen to them for 4-8 hours without any fatigue, very musical, very pleasant while rendering all the detail I need.

I am more then pleased with their performance and they’re staying. To be honest I did not expect too much of them prior to their arrival, was admittedly even thinking “another time waster”, but they managed to surprise me.

How do the ART108s sound with the KR KT88s? I came across this thread looking to roll tubes on my ART27A and at the moment I’m considering the KR KT88s and some NOS for V1.

FYI regarding tube dampers I’m having great success using Duende Criatura tube rings on input and power tubes.

 

[ThatStereoSound]

Photo with the tube rings.

 

[paolo]

@Taiko Audio :
Can you kindly describe what you mean when you hear "teflon capacitor signature?" I've got about 110 hours on a Classic 62SE. Some folks say that the Teflons need upwards of 400 or more hours before they are completely broken in.
Thanks.

@ThatStereoSound:
Can you kindly elaborate on the improvements you hear with the Duende Criatura tube rings? Have you compared them to any other similar devices?
Thanks.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

View attachment 121645
Photo with the tube rings.

Interesting to see these tube damper/rings on Output tubes!
In my entire journey of owning CJ gear and having my own dealership network in the Sth East Asian region (way back in 98), from that time of Lew J and Ed Detimier (think I spelt his name wrong) none of them recommended dampners on Outpur tubes. Plus most back in the day would simply melt or go all gooey... due to the excessive heat dissipated from Output tubes. Fast fwd that to 30yrs... and now Jeff Fischel (chief designer and owner of CJ) doesn't recommend tube rings even today!

On the smaller signal tubes, they're OK and those being the 6922 variants, 6DJ7/8, E88CC etc , also noticed on your ART27A, it's only the driver/ phase inverter tubes that have tube rings. What about on the Input tube? After all this is where the original source signal is received from the preamp.

The other thing quite obvious is if a tube goes bad, it goes bad! Regardless of what rings / dampners or even if covered with a bed sheet or pillow case! There's no way around a bad / noisy tube other than to just replace it. Input tubes going bad would mostly be paper tearing noises, farts or sputtering, same symptoms with driver tubes including white flashes. Power tubes going bad or weak is a bias adjustment issue and mosrly ends with one of the large ceramic plate fuses going out, which will indicate by a Red LED on either channel. Clever design by CJ, which has been incorporated since their very first MV series amplifiers- 70's to 80's.

So, if you're saying that these tube rings do wonders and it's a marvel to use, that's excellent! Well done.
However, CJ gear is one of those classic tube circuits perfected over decades of passionate tube design, and LJ and the crew knew exactly what they were doing. They were well ahead of their time. Now, with JF's designs and his latest ART series gear, they're simply outstanding and far more neutral sounding. CJ is one of the most quietest tube gear ever built by man! So I'm not really convinced that much by tube rings on the Output tubes.

Sorry made a mistake: I'm currently using rings on only the Input tubes on my monoblocks and preamp tubes but that's it. Even then, with or without, there's still pin drop silence so I'm not bothered. I just leave them in there because that's how they originally arrived from the factory.

Cheers, and enjoy those fine tunes!
Woof! RJ

 

[ThatStereoSound]

Good info RJ. I still have some experimenting to do, but these rings come in packs of two and I bought them for the output tubes too since they were available, but only one pack for the signal tubes were available. Typical of this hobby I installed them all instead of signal tubes first so it could be that the output tube rings are doing nothing. I’ll have to try removing them. I bought them originally as a learning experiment which is why I bought them for the output tubes too. You are correct that the amp is extremely quiet and adding the tubes did nothing for noise levels.

Secondly I really do appreciate your explanation since I had no idea which was the input tube vs the driver/phase inverter tube. I’ll eventually have another to put on the third but in the meantime I’ll try moving one ring to the input tube now I know where it is.

 

[ThatStereoSound]

@ThatStereoSound:
Can you kindly elaborate on the improvements you hear with the Duende Criatura tube rings? Have you compared them to any other similar devices?
Thanks.

These are the first I tried as a learning experiment. When I added them there was an increase in resolution and everything tightened up a little bit. The macro impact was an improved sense of space. I have read some say that tube dampers tighten up the presentation at the expense of air. I could see this being true. As I mentioned to RJ the gear is already very quiet so don’t expect anything there, but for me there was a noticeable impact to clarity. Also the signal tubes are likely the place to start, but for me the output tube rings were also available and easy to add to the order.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Good info RJ. I still have some experimenting to do, but these rings come in packs of two and I bought them for the output tubes too since they were available, but only one pack for the signal tubes were available. Typical of this hobby I installed them all instead of signal tubes first so it could be that the output tube rings are doing nothing. I’ll have to try removing them. I bought them originally as a learning experiment which is why I bought them for the output tubes too. You are correct that the amp is extremely quiet and adding the tubes did nothing for noise levels.

Secondly I really do appreciate your explanation since I had no idea which was the input tube vs the driver/phase inverter tube. I’ll eventually have another to put on the third but in the meantime I’ll try moving one ring to the input tube now I know where it is.

Ah, I understand now. That's a fair point.
Cheers, RJ

 

[Big Dog RJ]

The ART series amplifiers from CJ are in a class of their own, just superb! When looking at other tube gear of similar makes and their build quality, considering their exorbitant pricing, CJ's price range isn't too shabby at all. Top value and top dollar, it doesn't disappoint at this level. The ART27A is a beautiful thing, a true work of Art! Without a doubt!

From this particular line, starting with the ART27A, ART150, ART300's and the ART108A's (my favorite of all time), the moment I heard these amplifiers, from that very first note during the audition, I knew straight away JF has hit this design way out of the park. After having released the previous ART series 1, which was the ARTsa and the ART monoblocks, then of course their original ART preamp (two chassis preamp), which was a joy to own, and considering CJ's Premier and LP series amplifiers, they had to introduce something very extraordinary. So that Classic tube circuit was handed over to Jeff and when he took full ownership of the brand, he was then able to really focus his efforts on the Class A/AB topology by using Push-pull in Ultra-Linear pentode design. This particular design laid out the foundation to introduce two very different sets of amplifiers: ART27A and ART108A both operating in Class A and the ART150 and ART300's operating in Class AB. This particular ART series gear is in a class of its own, it's not even funny! To surpass any of these models in terms of overall power, musicality with finesse, it will cost a bloody fortune! Even then only a handful can compare and in certain cases might not even come close.

I forgot to mention two other units that compliment this ART series, the newest ART preamp (all tube design no SS buffered stages) and the ART Phono-preamp. I haven't heard the ART phono-preamp as yet, will do so in early Feb or March. However, I did get a chance to audition the ART preamp, that was an awe-inspiring experience.

This latest ART series is produced only in limited numbers... so if you really can afford these stunning pieces of audio ART, without going broke or getting thrown into the Dog house, with their pure Class A tube craftsmanship, you'll be set for life! SOTA at its finest level.

Cheers and do enjoy those finest tunes!
Woofty woof'n!!!
RJ

 

[Johan K]

The ART series amplifiers from CJ are in a class of their own, just superb! When looking at other tube gear of similar makes and their build quality, considering their exorbitant pricing, CJ's price range isn't too shabby at all. Top value and top dollar, it doesn't disappoint at this level. The ART27A is a beautiful thing, a true work of Art! Without a doubt!

From this particular line, starting with the ART27A, ART150, ART300's and the ART108A's (my favorite of all time), the moment I heard these amplifiers, from that very first note during the audition, I knew straight away JF has hit this design way out of the park. After having released the previous ART series 1, which was the ARTsa and the ART monoblocks, then of course their original ART preamp (two chassis preamp), which was a joy to own, and considering CJ's Premier and LP series amplifiers, they had to introduce something very extraordinary. So that Classic tube circuit was handed over to Jeff and when he took full ownership of the brand, he was then able to really focus his efforts on the Class A/AB topology by using Push-pull in Ultra-Linear pentode design. This particular design laid out the foundation to introduce two very different sets of amplifiers: ART27A and ART108A both operating in Class A and the ART150 and ART300's operating in Class AB. This particular ART series gear is in a class of its own, it's not even funny! To surpass any of these models in terms of overall power, musicality with finesse, it will cost a bloody fortune! Even then only a handful can compare and in certain cases might not even come close.

I forgot to mention two other units that compliment this ART series, the newest ART preamp (all tube design no SS buffered stages) and the ART Phono-preamp. I haven't heard the ART phono-preamp as yet, will do so in early Feb or March. However, I did get a chance to audition the ART preamp, that was an awe-inspiring experience.

This latest ART series is produced only in limited numbers... so if you really can afford these stunning pieces of audio ART, without going broke or getting thrown into the Dog house, with their pure Class A tube craftsmanship, you'll be set for life! SOTA at its finest level.

Cheers and do enjoy those finest tunes!
Woofty woof'n!!!
RJ

Hi RJ,

Long time no see… Great to have you back..

Cheers man / Jk

 

[ThatStereoSound]

Ah, I understand now. That's a fair point.
Cheers, RJ

RJ quick update, moving the damper to V1 did make a noticeable difference. Thanks again for pointing that out.

 

[paolo]

Now that I've moved into the "modern era" with a cj Classic 62SE (biased for EL34s) and paired with a MAC C22 preamp I'm no longer concerned with some alleged "golden glow." After briefly owning vintage cj preamp and amp, I can say that what I'm listening to now is much more agreeable and far more reliable. I daresay there's a glow to this modern/current pairing. How golden it is, I cannot say.
YMMV