CJ Premier 14 vs. 16LS..etc.

A dealer I trust said that the ART and the 16 are both top preamps, and that the 17 is a good step below them.

That was several years ago, however, and I know there is now an "ACT" preamp and other changes to the c-j line. I have no idea where the 14 fits in.

My experience with a PV-10 was that it is basically mid-fi.

Hope this helps.

The Premier 14 was the the step down below the ART before the 16 replaced it. I owned a Premier 14 which has more of the older CJ house sound than the more neutral ART, 16, 17 etc. I'm not sure the 14 has 100 steps it uses ~23 vishay's into 3 combinations to come up with all the volumn steps.. it didn't have the adjustment of my Placette Active and I sold it because of this and because of CJ's awful repair service (6months and 3 roundtrips mailings to get something taken care of plus double billing for not fixing it the first time..)

As much as I like the look and sound I will never own one of their components.

I have no experience with the ART or 16ls. I have had my freinds 17ls in my system and it was in my opinion not as good as my 14 with nos mullards, hence I did not purchase it considering it would have cost more, for close to, but not as good. That was in my system and to my tastes.

Linn Ikemi
cj premier 11A
proac 1sc (at the time)