Preamp Deal of the Century

OK so here I am looking for a new preamp and really considering the Conrad Johnson LS17. I would rather have the 16, but i can't afford that right now. I'm really close to pulling the trigger on the 17 when i decide to come here and see what others are saying about it when I stumble across this thread.
I am a die hard CJ fan. But I keep reading about this preamp (Chardonnay) bettering the CJ 17 (and maybe the 16 but I haven't read that far yet). So now I am intrigued and have emailed Mick to see what the lead time is on the Chardonnay. Maybe there was a reason that I hadn't pulled the trigger on the 17 yet. Anyway, thanks. I hope I can get one soon. I had heard of Supratek but didn't realize it had such a cult following. Then too, i haven't been looking for a preamp......till now.
The only reason for a change of preamp is that I want to see what a good tube preamp will do for my system. Anyone running a CJ MF 2500A with the chardonnay? Is it a good match?

Artemus,I had that combo for a bout a year,,,worked great!!

Hi Artemus, Raytheprinter had the Conrad Johnson Chardonay combo.Rays a good guy and I'm sure he will help you out. Speaking of tubes,the E.H. gold pin 6SN7s and Sovtek KT66 [Thanks Abe] perform very well in my Chenin. As for the rectifier, the stock Sovtek works very well. I have a half dozen metal base Philips Mini and other early production GZ-34s,Telefunken,Siemens,Mullard and Bugal Boy. They all worked very well in my Chenin.However a $20.00 n.o.s. Bendix 6106 will do nicely also.....

For the record, I too was dragged to "tube rolling" here regarding how much improvement you can benefit from it. In fact, I fired some of my recommendations as well while I am at it. But in all honesty, as I mentioned before trying to report about how good the preamp really is without canging anything but just waiting patiently for it to settle, the stock tubes that Mick shipped are the tubes where the preamp is calibrated. Granted that not two people are alike, it might be wise to let the thing run for a while before constantly buying and replacing the tubes to tailor the sound. So far, the only tubes that I replaced that I am succesful are the two 6C4 tubes in my Chenin

Ooops! Correction! I forgot to add the Sovtek KT66 works wonders for me in the preamp also. It's been a long time since I worry about the tubes on my Chenin. So I thought I still have the Sovtek regulators in there.

Stiltskin, glad to hear that you like the tubes.

Regards

Just a report back on the replacement of my stock regulators (Sovtek 5881). The Sovtek KT66's have settled in and the image wandering I was experiencing is basically gone. From what I've been reading, it would seem to have less to do with the tube type (plenty of endorsements for the Sovtek 5881) and more with condition (alas, I don't have a tester).

Also put in the Bendix 6106 rectifier to replace the Sovtek 5AR4. I think these take many hours to break in, but after about 3 it seems better..clearer, more solid in the low end; the highs seem a little cut off, but again, it's early.

I got it from Tube Depot and the box has a label on it that said: "This tube is a Bendix 6106 / 5Y3GT. Richardson mis-labeled them as 5AR4 years ago. This tube is NOT a 5AR4." Obviously, the tube is labeled 5AR4. Has anybody encontered this?

Best regards,