CJ Premier 10 - still competitive?

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