Audible Illusions vs CJ preamps: sonic difference?

@Mechans

Thank you for your excellent description of "dark". Being an old guy I was too lazy to provide a thoughtful discription. And you made me chuckle... I'm still using 30+ year old mono amps with NOS Mullard el34 (xf2's).

Tony

Its been awhile since I listened to a CJ Pre or AI-m3a. Many years ago a friend of mine and I brought his VAC amp
and CJ Pre to Advanced Audio on a Sunday afternoon in Tacoma and listened to the AI m3a with an Ayre amp and a Wadia CD player through a large pair of Genesis loudspeakers. We never switched the amps, just the Pre-amps. No contest. The AI m3a was breathtaking. Through the m3a, Aaron Neville's voice floated out of those speakers with such majestic elegant grace and 3D imaging that we just sat their hypnotized. The only negative with AI m3a is they are known to burn up tubes in a short span of time. If you were to pick up a used AI m3a I would highly recommend buying Psvane tubes since they have a very long burn life due to their heavy filaments and thick glass envelopes and the best place to buy the tubes from is Grant Fidelity who is the premier vendor for North America. Grant Fidelity has the tubes shipped directly from the Psvane warehouse in China to your home so they arrive very qucikly by air so you don't have to go through a long waiting period with other vendors who receive the tubes at their business location first in the States then to your home.

They will burn through tubes which are NOT recommended for them. For 240.00, you can buy 4 matched, very low noise tubes from Audible Illusions. I have also had good luck at The Tube Store. I bought 6h23neb tubes, graded and matched for less than 100.00. It's when you try to use the nos mullards, ampex, ect tubes where you can run into trouble.

The only tubes that Audible Illusions recommends fully are the Sovtec 6922's or the Russian Military 6H23EB's. Most all other brands they recommend with reservation which will result in a shorter tube life. They do not recommend you to buy at all the China 6DJ8H, the Sylvania 6DJ8 or the Philips 69J8. The Psvane tubes as I mentioned, are built to the standards of tubes 50 years ago and tubes from that era would last an average of ten years or longer due to their heavy filaments and thicker envelopes resulting in a higher heat threshold.

Had the discussion in 2009 here on Gon about AI eating up tubes. Even AI technician and owner came in the discussion. By design, AI will be hard on tubes and only the most rugged ones will resist.