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Conrad Johnson vs Van Alst

Van Alstibe get valve 400 vs Conrad Johnson 2275

im looking at used amps and was wondering if any of you could give your opinion on these two amplifiers. Just curious about how you feel they sound, the quality, things like that. I can get both for similar money and the Fet Valve is more powerful but my speakers are super sensitive so that’s not an issue really. I know nothing about Conrad Johnston. Never net a distributor or seen them on display anywhere…

bear1971
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,914 posts
 
make sure CJ has parts for that amp.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,010 posts
 
I say if you can't spell it, don't buy it. Go with CJ.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,405 posts
 
I had a Conrad Johnson MF2550 power amp and found it dull on top and slow sounding. It didn’t seem to be a good match for my system, so I sold it after a year of ownership. The person who bought it sent me a nice letter thanking me for selling it to him. He went on to say it was the best sounding amp he ever heard.

I am still perplexed as I know how it sounded at home. It was mated to a Rogue RP5 tube preamp, Esoteric SACD player and GE Triton Refs speakers. Just food for thought.
speakermaster
738 posts
 
I think that both would be a good choice but i can say they are for two very different systems you could not go wrong with either one in the right system but i can say that the conrad johnson amp would most likely be the more forgiving amp of the two and the van alstine would be the more accurate/revealing if that helps.
chorus
976 posts
 
AVA for SS. The new SS Mono Blocks he is about to or just has released for $4k are said to fantastic. CJ is about tube sound.

Since I don't know what you're driving I should just shut up.
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