Conrad Johnson MV60SE vs. Audio Research VS55

As someone who has done these upgrades the C/J sounds excellent. Coupling cap upgrades are always nice provided the caps used are complimentary. It does take some time for those caps to break in however.

The MV60SE does not have teflon caps. It is an amazing transformation. More detail. More music. More open. Quieter, smoother. It will sound like a new amp 10+ times better. But it takes 200 hours to burn in the new caps. A wait very much worth while. Call CJ and talk to them. Don't rely on us.

I'm an authorized C/J service facility.

For those that are making a decision today and find this discussion. Just to put in another thought on the other side. General rule of thumb is BAT is neutral to a bit warm. CJ is the most warm. Audio REsearch is the most analytic. Each means something good and something bad. And, of course, don't forget it has so much to do with the rest of your system, room, and taste. Nobody can compare for you. You have to do it yourself.

And this is years after those items left the market. They still were both darn good and used, can be spectacular buys.

IMHO, cj always trumps Audio Research. Over many years of comparing the 2 brands, cj gear sounds more like real, live music. The AR gear has a slight electronic "glaze" over the sound that makes the music sound more "reproduced" than "produced".