Conrad Johnson vs. McIntosh Tube Gear

Mike Sanders builds some great amps.....I have a pair of his mid monos paired with a conrad-johnson Classic 2SE and it is an awesome combo

Thanks! for sharing Bill-

I concur, both CJ & ARC cannot be beat (no pun).
MAC gear takes more careful consideration prior to any purchase and should be auditioned.

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!

VAC better still.

VAC is not "better still" in my opinion. Compared to either cj or Mac, VAC sounds no better (it typically sounds damn good though) and yields to both in terms of reliability. ARC is also worthy of consideration. Some of their better stuff is sonically peerless, but ARC would also yield to both cj and Mac in reliability.

With 96dB efficient speakers your biggest problem will be keeping the noise out. One of the preamps you are looking at has a gain of 25-27dB. You could end up with tubes going noisy or microphonic very often.

I would look for something about 14dB or less.

I had a C2200 that got traded in. It sounded quite nice. It's a big box with not a lot of parts in it considering what it costs. But still, it sounded great. It uses a lot of 12AX7's and that sucks because vintage ones are all about gone now. I like to tube roll and 12AX7's are expensive as hell.

I suggest you look at the inside of a preamp before you buy. Use Google Images and look at the innards and check the weight. Some companies are practically ripping people off in the last five years or so. A preamp can look good on the outside and sound great but have $100 worth of parts in them. Manufacturers know that and have turned preamps into profit centers.

What budget are you trying to keep it at? I see they are ribbons speakers, right? Are they BG?