Conrad Johnson--does anyone use this brand anymore?

LinnLingo... Mr. Johnson, Lew, heard of your earlier comment and wanted to make it clear that he is very much with us and doing just fine. In fact he is working harder and doing more daily to support the company since the sale to Jeff than he has in some time. He and Bill are both not 75 years old and really have deep concern for the future of conrad-johnson.  That business is their legacy and they both want and expect c-j to continue indefinitely into the future.  Their product quality and design philosophy have always reflected the long view.

I started in the 90s with a CJ MV 55 stereo tube amp and when I needed beefier amplification for a wider range of speakers I auditioned everything under the sun - solid state and tubed. For me the CJ Premier 12 monoblocks came out on top. Just like Michael Fremers review said at the time they had an almost miraculous balance of qualities - that utterly intoxicating CJ midrange married to guts - an extended sparkling but not bright high end and low end with punch and pitch control of all manner of speakers. I still haven’t replaced them in 16 years and I would likely regret it if I did.

A few years ago I replaced my older locally built tube preamp with a CJ Premier 16LS2 and as you may imagine it’s a beautiful match - somehow this preamp does incredible transparency more akin to what I would hear when I used my DAC to bypass my previous preamp, directly into the monoblocks. Yet it has that glorious CJ glow, sparkle and liquidity that makes musical instruments come across as organic and unmechanical.

So, yes, some of us certainly are still using CJ gear :-)

coppy777 thanks for the info. I have had my CJ ET3 SE for a little over a year and love it. Just two weeks ago I added a pair of Aerial 5T's to the stereo and the combination is the best sound I ever had.

I had CJ gear for years. I had an MV60SE amp and a 17LS2 preamp. I've since  switched to Pass, an XP20 and X250.8. I've lost nothing and gained much by switching. Ultimately I found CJ gear a little too golden. I hear zero solid state nasties on my Pass gear and the noise floor is definitely lower. To each their own. 

I think all agree that Mr. Pass is an excellent designer.  Not suggesting you should change anything, but modern c-j amplifiers are just that bit more linear.  Some miss the golden sound, while most enjoy the expanded accuracy.  And, don't you miss that something that comes with tube sound?  My P350 is excellent even today but I always come back to the LP140s.  It's a personal choice and a great deal depends on our speaker choices as well.  I'm a Wilson guy with a new pair of Yvettes.