CJ Premier 10 - still competitive?

Here's a can of worms for you, open at your own peril. Perhaps the tubes in the 10 could stand to be replaced. Your overall impressions don't suprise except for the grain in the 10.

The Prem 10 is really a 14 without remote, little to choose between them. I have heard both and bought a 17. It is better, but not dramatically. All are wonderful, musical Pre's with a magical midrange, you can keep your ARC's, they lack the CJ magic, to my aging ears. Enjoy the 10

There's a good-looking Premier 14 on Agon today for $1500. Can't imagine preferring a ML 26 to this baby, but that's a tube guy for you :-)

Further observations:

I am willing to like the Premier10, to my ears it is a very musical design, this unit is in almost 10/10 condition and midrange bloom is fantastic, but I am missing the extreme frequency resolution, speed and impact of the ML 26.

During the first days of trial, I thought I was used to the ML presentation, so I really tried to wash-out all previous misconceptions of the former preamp and really tried to be open minded about the sonic signature of the Premier10.

The Premier10 is not a bad preamp, it cost 50% of the street price of the ML 26 and is pretty close in many aereas and even better in some others, but as-of-today I think I will keep the ML 26 and wait for a larger CJ preamp opportunity someday in the future.

I will give the Premier10 this last 2 days (weekend) just to confirm the above conclusion.

Fernando

Final Decision: I am keeping the ML26 and wait to get a Premier 17 or a 16 later on. The Premier 10 is a great preamp but it did not bring any substantial sonic improvements over my current preamp.

Thanks all for your feedback, it was very valuable for me.

Fernando