Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?

Funny you mention the CJ 275,because my dear friend has just gotten that amp.He has all CJ ART components,and a fully loaded VPI table/arm/Lyra Titan-i cartridge,but the speaker is different from those mentioned here.

Thsy are highly modded Infinity RS-1bs.In truth(when modded "fully",including a crossover rebuild)these are about as revealing,and dynamic as anything "popular" today!Classic design.

The CJ 275 will only run the midbass/midrange/tweeter panels(the woofer towers are run by SS Krell).They'll start to come in at above 110 hz,or thereabouts.

Previously his sound,with the older CJ big boys has been superb,and he is an old school,extremely experienced 'phile!A great listening room as well....because.....

Regardless of what one thinks the particular sonic success of "any" system is the absolute combination of room/amp/speaker.....That's it,in a nutshell!!

They are not independant of oneanother!

He is currently experiencing some set-up problems,but I should be getting in some serious listening very soon.

Best

Hi Lloyd

I owned the cj prem350 for about 6 months. Did not like it at all at the end and was very happy to sell them. Just sounds like SS, expecially in the bass which is lean and tight and not lifelike.

Don't get me wrong, it sounded better than other SS amps I tried at the time including Pass X350.5,Parasound JC-1, Simaudio, Cary 500MB's, Krell 400cxi but ultimately if you prefer what tubes do you won't be able to live with any of them, and i am a big cj fan

Hi Sirspeedy, have read and respect your posts from before. Very helpful. Between your post and Downunder's plus lots of listening and reading, I've refined my thinking for my SF Strads. I am a tube guy and love my CJ MV60's EL34s for midrange palpability. If I am looking for tube midrange and effortless power and volume, I am narrowing it down to CJ LP275, Berning Quad Z, possibly Wavac 833 1.3s. Thanks for posting!!!

Lloyd

sounds like a wondeful choice of tube amps to choose from. Hopefully you can hear them in your system so you can decide best for you.

BTW, my local dealer is getting a pair of cj LP275's in a couple of weeks. That will be an interesting comparison with my 2xMC2102's if I can arrange it. Almost scared to ask

A friend has the Strads in a medium sized dedicated listening room (designed from the ground up by Rives). He powers the speakers with a pair of custom-built output transformerless tube amplifiers. The sound is very good. If I have one issue with the speaker, it is that it is not super fast and dynamic. While it is not a slug, and compares fairly with other dynamic speakers of its type, it is certainly not in the "speed" range of elctrostatics or horns or even fast dynamic speakers like the Magicos.

I would personally be looking for amps that can provide a little kick-in-the-ass quality. I have not heard the combination myself, but I would, if it were in my system, look into Atmasphere OTLs. The bass may seem a touch lean with the Atmaspheres, but, it will be tight and fast and will add some helpful "jump" to the music.