Cary Audio SLP-05 or Conrad Johnson ET7 S2

in general i feel cj > cary

but the slp-05 is widely well regarded, and it has been viewed as cary’s very best effort (i have had other cary preamps but i have never had the slp05 in my own system)

my guess, and it is only an educated guess, is that cary’s voicing would be slightly more tubey at the frequency extremes than the cj et7-2 (which i do have in house) - the new cj et7 is very transparent and extended at both frequency extremes, has terrific transient response and impact, while dealing out a good dose of tube magic to voices and acoustic instruments

hard to go wrong with either choice - and perhaps ergonomics might influence choice... the cary is a two chassis unit needing more than normal real estate on a rack, whereas the cj et7 is notably ’slimline’ in form factor

Just get both.. Come on.. Quit being so cheap..:-)

You know you want to... Go ahead... 

Just tell her you'll send one back, pretty soon..  Sell her car and pay for it.. Easy...

Regards

never heard the CJ but have been enamored with my SLP 05 for almost a year.  the Cary is warm, smooth, ultra refined and detailed with great dynamics and a crazy deep and wide sound stage.  
it has adjustable gain which comes in handy, a two box eye candy design that is stunning, unique sound of the 6SN7 tubes and a desirable r core transformer that is the best in the business for low noise.  luxman also uses r core transformers in some products.  
the CJ uses one tube, does not have adjustable gain and inverts phase at the output.  it is also twice as much as the Cary which is quite reasonable at Cary direct.  

Forgot to mention that this is HER system;  I can spare no expense to keep her happy.  If I get to listen to Pink Floyd for just 5 minutes, I consider it a win.
thanks for the input so far…much better than all the reviews I’ve read.

"Nyquist is built around the ESS ES9018S Sabre DAC, one for each channel. Each 9018 DAC incorporates eight separate digital-to-analog converters; their outputs are combined to lower the noise floor, randomize any conversion errors, and create a balanced output signal. Brinkmann uses only the DAC portion of the Sabre chip, ignoring its integral PLL and upsampling digital filters. Rather than use these compromised sub-systems, the Nyquist has a separate Brinkmann-designed PLL and re-clocking circuit to reduce jitter. The clock is said to have very low phase noise, and is located right next to the DAC chip (the point where jitter matters). Similarly, the digital filter is implemented in a separate DSP chip running Brinkmann’s custom filter software. This filter upsamples all incoming PCM data to 352kHz or 384kHz for conversion to analog. Sources at 44.1kHz or multiples of that rate (88.2kHz, 176.4kHz) are upsampled to 352kHz; sources at 48kHz or multiples of that rate (96kHz or 192kHz) are upsampled to 384kHz. This dual-frequency scheme avoids sonically degrading non-integer upsampling. Interestingly, the 3.3V that supplies the ES9018S DAC chip is derived from the 160V rail that supplies the tubes. Brinkmann found that this supply technique improved the sound compared with powering the DAC chip from a conventional supply" .

@langla4,
I posted This to point out that this DAC has an output voltage of 3.3V.
The two preamplifiers you’re interested are both considered to be sonically excellent. The one potential drawback is that both are high gain (Particularly the CJ ET7 with 25 db of gain). The Cary has about 18 db of gain.

This level of gain coupled with your DAC’s relatively high 3.3V output could result in excess system gain. This would limit your volume control range of use. You may not be able to use the volume control above say 9 o’clock (Or thereabouts) as it will be too loud. Just a point to consider.

With the  DAC's  3.3V output,   10 db of preamplifier gain would be plenty. You also need to factor in the sensitivity of your speakers. The higher the sensitivity, the less system gain required. One more factor to be aware is the input sensitivity of the Decware tube amplifier. The more sensitive it is, the less system gain is required.
Charles