Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?

Hi Downunder,

I have heard others say the Pass bridges the gap btwn solid and tube. I have heard the same of the CJ Premier 350...read Martin Collom's review on the net. Wow...until the Premier 350, the Krell 700cxi was one of his fav SS amps. He said the 350 bettered it by being more musical...130-point rating by Martin. 600 watts/channel into 4ohm load so plenty of power/effortless volume for a 93db efficiency Strad.

The XA.5 series is the best SS I have heard, and their 30 watt amp should be more than enough to drive the SFs plenty loud in most rooms for most people - I think it is very conservatively rated at 30 watts. THe .5 iteration is much better at delivering current into low and volatile impedance swings - should do very well with the SF in that regard. It worked superbly well with the Merlin VSMs (a much easier load the SF), and would expect the same with the SFs. Is it tubes, no - but it sure sounds good.

Funny you mention the CJ 275,because my dear friend has just gotten that amp.He has all CJ ART components,and a fully loaded VPI table/arm/Lyra Titan-i cartridge,but the speaker is different from those mentioned here.

Thsy are highly modded Infinity RS-1bs.In truth(when modded "fully",including a crossover rebuild)these are about as revealing,and dynamic as anything "popular" today!Classic design.

The CJ 275 will only run the midbass/midrange/tweeter panels(the woofer towers are run by SS Krell).They'll start to come in at above 110 hz,or thereabouts.

Previously his sound,with the older CJ big boys has been superb,and he is an old school,extremely experienced 'phile!A great listening room as well....because.....

Regardless of what one thinks the particular sonic success of "any" system is the absolute combination of room/amp/speaker.....That's it,in a nutshell!!

They are not independant of oneanother!

He is currently experiencing some set-up problems,but I should be getting in some serious listening very soon.

Best

Hi Lloyd

I owned the cj prem350 for about 6 months. Did not like it at all at the end and was very happy to sell them. Just sounds like SS, expecially in the bass which is lean and tight and not lifelike.

Don't get me wrong, it sounded better than other SS amps I tried at the time including Pass X350.5,Parasound JC-1, Simaudio, Cary 500MB's, Krell 400cxi but ultimately if you prefer what tubes do you won't be able to live with any of them, and i am a big cj fan

Hi Sirspeedy, have read and respect your posts from before. Very helpful. Between your post and Downunder's plus lots of listening and reading, I've refined my thinking for my SF Strads. I am a tube guy and love my CJ MV60's EL34s for midrange palpability. If I am looking for tube midrange and effortless power and volume, I am narrowing it down to CJ LP275, Berning Quad Z, possibly Wavac 833 1.3s. Thanks for posting!!!