CJ premier 8 - please share your comments

sovtek? the stock factory 6550 tubes should be GE manufactured maybe that's why the soundstage is as you are describing doesn't match the sonic soundstage description as excellent by rushton or I. In my experience the sovtek tubes are adequate sounding at best definitely believe the Conrad Johnson supplied GE tubes would definitely sound better.

Yeah .. it was strange for me as well finding out that Sovtek tubes were installed in this amp, and they have un-even lettering as well so I am pretty sure there are room for improvements there.

What about Svetlana tubes for this amp, are those a good option?

Fernando

Further Comments (3 hours prior SBowl)

a) Midrange thru the CJ is very clean (I can follow lyrics easily)

b) A little "boominess" in the bass compared to the PASS (this should be expected right??)

Will try Rock and Alternative this next hours, I have been playing mostly Jazz and Latin (Yo-Yo-Ma Brazil, etc..).

Fernando

In the bass, you may be hearing room interaction more than a characteristic of the Premier 8s, assuming your speakers are still positioned as shown in your system picture. With the Premier 8s, you may have not "boominess" but actually more accurate and fully fleshed out bass that is now revealing that the speakers are too close to side and rear walls, or that the distances should be more different one from the other than now. Having the speakers right in the corner, as shown in the picture, will not be kind to a smooth bass response. If you have enough width, try moving each speaker towards the center by 6-12" and see what happens to the bass.
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Rushton - Agreed with your note regarding spkr positioning, but the pic is a little misleading since the left speaker is almost 1.5 mt from the back wall and 1 mt from the left wall- I have nearly 3 mts between the spkrs so I would try pulling them INSIDE the listening room first to see what happens.

Fernando