saika
good luck in your finding a tube pre you like
in 2007 i bought my cj prem 16ls2 for $3300... it has provided me with countless hours of joy and musical bliss, and fun, rolling tubes
it is worth at least that much today, probably a few hundred more, if i choose to sell it (not doing it...)
as a version two it is the last version of that unit - yes the newer models are just a touch clearer, zippier/sharper in tone but also leaner in the midrange and midbass - i got an et5 few years back as well... both lovely units, the et5 is a more modernized cj sound - they clearly are voicing their products somewhat differently as time passes - then i tried a friends GAT for a couple months - it was almost solid state like in sound, i did not like it as i felt it went too zippy and hifi in sound character
through all this, if i were to keep one cj pre it would still be the 16... for me it defines what the cj tube magic is...
