Conrad Johnson PV-9a VS PV-11

Lot's of bloom and wrmth but still from era wehn CJ had lot's of noise as penalty.ZASince I woned lower end pre's (PV10) and MV50 amo I an anzed a how qiet they got durring 90's.If you can pony up for latter model I;d o for them.Righ now I need a pohonon stage but need outbopard adjustability.If not I'd save moeny and not get a Whes anget their now discontinued EV1.Art Seris or 17LS aren't chep but well worth the price IMHO.
Cheers
Chazz

I owned both many years ago. For me the PV11 can not be compared with the PV9a – the PV9a was a much more musical preamplifier, with a better sense of bloom, space and scale, much better dynamics. The PV9a was noisier than the PV11, but if properly matched was a fantastic buy - hifi is much more than signal to noise ratio! Do not match it with an high gain amp and high efficiency speakers. BTW, I used them with a MV125 and Sonus Faber Amator / Quad ESL63– fantastic systems.
Even technically , there is no doubt – the PV9a had a suspended chassis and much better coupling capacitors. The volume potentiometer was much better in the PV9a.

Regards
Francisco

Excellent summary, Francisco. I owned the PV-9a and listened to the PV-10 and PV-11 as they were introduced. My observations at the time exactly track with yours.
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