ProAc Response 2: CJ CAV45, Cary SEI 300B, or Cary Rocket 88?

@leahy a friend bought one of my former fully upgraded Cary strapped triode/ultralinear amps (el34s), and right afterwards he sent his other CJ  tube mono amps (6550s) and CJ mosfet ss amp out for full upgrades; selected a real expert master level tech.  Upgraded all caps, resistors, diodes, and more - same as the Cary units had. He just had to know if upgrades really made a difference in the units. Both the Cary units and CJ units were brought to an entirely different level.       

In all cases the fully upgraded preamps and amps won over one brand vs. the other. Another consideration path for your CJ45 if its not already upgraded. I'm a Cary owner myself, if you go 300B Cary's plan on higher sensitivy higher impedence speakers too in order to get the most out of the amps and pricey 300b tubes, fwiw.  Other fleawatt owners may chime in for other references if you go this route.       

@leahy ,

This is going to be an interesting direct comparison you  plan to do. 

1 Active tube preamplifier paired  with a 300b SET circuit  (Class A) DHT output tubes  vs

2 Integrated amplifier with a passive preamplifier section,  push-pull (Class A/B) circuit using pentode el34 output tubes. I have no doubt that you will hear distinct differences between these two. This will be fun and informative. 

Charles 

Agreed, I can't wait to start getting everything in the house!

Terrific! Looking forward to your listening impressions and commentary. 

Charles 

@leahy back in the early 90s when that speaker was made we sold a lot of our M-60 amplifiers for use on them- it was the most popular speaker used with that amp at the time. That amp made/makes 60 watts. Unless you are really serious about low level listening I’d look at something with a bit more power. But if its meant to be a smaller system in a smaller room (like a bedroom system) an SET using a 300b should be fine.