Greetings from down unda!
We are supposed to be in winter now, and other parts of the world are mostly in summer, hence why we're referred to as down under I guess... Some days it reaches 17 then 19c and suddenly plummets to 4c at night. Quite cold indeed for a warm furry dog. So speaking of winter, what better way to warm up by adding more tubes!
After going through numerous phonostages, entry level and highend, I had settled in on the Rega Aria for a while, just to take my time in finding the most suitable preamp to match the gain structure of the cartridge, which is currently the Benz Micro Glider SM. This medium output, 0.8mv partnered with the Aria, set on low gain, which is around 63db, and it was OK until a certain point. This particular setting was still quite high, and when partnered with the CT5 preamp, the output level on playback was fairly high, hence I couldn't precisely control the overall smoothness of what the BM cartridges are known for. The high gain settings on the Aria falls around 69db, and this is overkill especially for an active linestage such as the CT5.
However, on the CAV45, since it uses a passive volume control, these selectable high gain settings on the Aria is a great match, especially for that added dynamic output on LPs.
So my search began and ended up with the last top four phonostages in terms of ranking & price
1. Allnic
2. Pass Labs
3. ARC
4. CJ
Out of all the above, the Allnic was fantastic but out-priced the lot! Maybe on another level of TT's, the Allnic would be a great match but for the Rega RP8, perhaps it was way over the top, not sure... As a demo unit it was excellent. It had that sort of transparency that you would expect from such a phonostage. I'm thinking the actual upgraded model to be far superior, hence the pricing top up to over 10 grand.
Having said that, there's something about the Triode Equalisation Amplifiers that CJ designs that simply captures and reproduces LP's in the most remarkable manner. It's cleaner, crystal clear, brings out the best of the recordings and has a way of piecing together the absolute sound. Initially I thought by adding more tubes into the chain, I'm heading towards a rounded off tonality, and wouldn't expect anything sharper or crystal clear definition / transparency... Quite the opposite, it's all very much apparent from the first note and wow! What an awesome job the TEA2SE does with vinyl, just superb!
The pricing is just about right, for all the added parts and upgraded components for it to be able to deliver a very fine level of sound reproduction. I would easily compare it with other phonostages that were on demo, costing two - three times more, some of them being reference series, such as the ARC and Pass Labs.
I'm not quite sure as to how exactly CJ does it, especially on this particular SE version but whatever they do, it's nothing short of breath taking, absolutely marvellous!
I've patiently waited for this opportunity since 2010, and as my heading says "it's about time! "
All I can say is at this point, for anyone looking for a serious phonostage to enhance their musical experience on a top quality analog rig, I highly recommend the TEA2 series. It's not overly priced, as yet... And it can very easily compete with some of the finest phono-preamps out there. Well done and hats off to CJ on this one, outstanding!
Cheers & a very loud refined woof!
RJ
We are supposed to be in winter now, and other parts of the world are mostly in summer, hence why we're referred to as down under I guess... Some days it reaches 17 then 19c and suddenly plummets to 4c at night. Quite cold indeed for a warm furry dog. So speaking of winter, what better way to warm up by adding more tubes!
After going through numerous phonostages, entry level and highend, I had settled in on the Rega Aria for a while, just to take my time in finding the most suitable preamp to match the gain structure of the cartridge, which is currently the Benz Micro Glider SM. This medium output, 0.8mv partnered with the Aria, set on low gain, which is around 63db, and it was OK until a certain point. This particular setting was still quite high, and when partnered with the CT5 preamp, the output level on playback was fairly high, hence I couldn't precisely control the overall smoothness of what the BM cartridges are known for. The high gain settings on the Aria falls around 69db, and this is overkill especially for an active linestage such as the CT5.
However, on the CAV45, since it uses a passive volume control, these selectable high gain settings on the Aria is a great match, especially for that added dynamic output on LPs.
So my search began and ended up with the last top four phonostages in terms of ranking & price
1. Allnic
2. Pass Labs
3. ARC
4. CJ
Out of all the above, the Allnic was fantastic but out-priced the lot! Maybe on another level of TT's, the Allnic would be a great match but for the Rega RP8, perhaps it was way over the top, not sure... As a demo unit it was excellent. It had that sort of transparency that you would expect from such a phonostage. I'm thinking the actual upgraded model to be far superior, hence the pricing top up to over 10 grand.
Having said that, there's something about the Triode Equalisation Amplifiers that CJ designs that simply captures and reproduces LP's in the most remarkable manner. It's cleaner, crystal clear, brings out the best of the recordings and has a way of piecing together the absolute sound. Initially I thought by adding more tubes into the chain, I'm heading towards a rounded off tonality, and wouldn't expect anything sharper or crystal clear definition / transparency... Quite the opposite, it's all very much apparent from the first note and wow! What an awesome job the TEA2SE does with vinyl, just superb!
The pricing is just about right, for all the added parts and upgraded components for it to be able to deliver a very fine level of sound reproduction. I would easily compare it with other phonostages that were on demo, costing two - three times more, some of them being reference series, such as the ARC and Pass Labs.
I'm not quite sure as to how exactly CJ does it, especially on this particular SE version but whatever they do, it's nothing short of breath taking, absolutely marvellous!
I've patiently waited for this opportunity since 2010, and as my heading says "it's about time! "
All I can say is at this point, for anyone looking for a serious phonostage to enhance their musical experience on a top quality analog rig, I highly recommend the TEA2 series. It's not overly priced, as yet... And it can very easily compete with some of the finest phono-preamps out there. Well done and hats off to CJ on this one, outstanding!
Cheers & a very loud refined woof!
RJ