CONRAD JOHNSON TUBE LOVERS HEAVEN


NOT long ago someone mentioned the cj PREMIER 5's tube monoblocs, out of curiosity i made a few phone calls regarding these amps. TO make the long story short,I FOUND a pair,talk about tube magic, the amps where last made in 1989,uses EL34's for output stage 8 each. 200 watts in ultra linear mode.I have since sold my PREMIER 12's. preamp source is a cj 17LS,digital is a RESOLUTION AUDIO CD 50, SPEAKERS are JM LAB MEZZOS.if you love cj tube amps,don't spend a dollar until you hear these.ANY PREMIER 5's owners comments.
gts87
For all you Premier 5 owners, Harry Pearson used them on his IRS Reference system prior to the fire. I heard the amps once in an unfamiliar Maggie set-up. The sound was simply stunning. For 3k used, if you need the power, I doubt a better 200 tube watts can be had.
Sawyer, your ML aerius i's are not really difficult to drive, but I would still suggest trying the Premier 5's. Logans love tubes -- no, they "need" tubes to open up. I'm the odd one in this group as I don't own the Premier 5's. I did audition them but at the end of the day the Mesa Baron (EL34's) was a better match with my full range electrostatics (ML CLS's). The CJ's should be a great match with your speakers and really are one the the best buys in audio.
Thanks guys. I will give them a shot. The place that has them for sale (on consignment) is getting the 3 small signal tubes for one of them (for some reason they were missing), so I couldn't borrow the amps the other day. They should have the signal tubes this week so hopefully I can bring them home for a home trial. They weren't mint (eg. some appearance of use, but then again I think they date from the mid 80s), but hopefully will sound good. If I end up getting them can probably get them for a good deal. (under 2k perhaps for the pair). Will keep everyone posted, thanks for the info on updates and improvements too. (eg. RCA connectors, etc.) -Ed