One more decent tube amp for the ML's.. CJ LP66S

[tonepub]

Here's one I did not suspect would work at all, but I try everything!

We have the new budget CJ amp and preamp in for review, so I decided to
give it a try on the CLX's. Not bad at all. My older MV-75 sounds pretty rolled off on the CLX's, but this new amp is doing a great job.

Reasonably priced at about $4k, new.

Worth a listen if you have a CJ dealer nearby.

http://www.conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/news-grand.html

 

[congers]

Here's one I did not suspect would work at all, but I try everything!

We have the new budget CJ amp and preamp in for review, so I decided to
give it a try on the CLX's. Not bad at all. My older MV-75 sounds pretty rolled off on the CLX's, but this new amp is doing a great job.

Reasonably priced at about $4k, new.

Worth a listen if you have a CJ dealer nearby.

http://www.conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/news-grand.html

I had purchased the CJ LP66s and ET2 preamp along with my Martin Logan Vantages and Esoteric X03SE CD player.

While the price is "entry level" the sound is not. I was a bit concerned that there was not enough power to support the speakers; I have not been at all disappointed. Our listening is more "near field" 7 feet from speakers. As I get older, I do not require rupturing of my ear drums to be a criteria for sonic happiness.

This combo helps to balance out the occasional edginess that one experiences with Vantages when pushed. The midrange is quite wonderful. My only minor quibble is that on less than stellar performances, the treble can be a bit rolled off. This is by no means a deal breaker for me. I have been looking to make the move to a tube amp for a while and this combo did the trick.

I guess that it is possible that a more powerful CJ combination might sound better, but given cost constraints, this was the best combo I have found for the money.

By the way, my wife appreciates the slightly softer sound and lack of edginess that we previously experienced.

Mike

 

[Jeff Zaret]

FYI
I am using the CJ LP70s to drive CLS's. It does this with ease and does not appear to roll off at either end.


Jeff

 

[Shoe]

Regarding CJ Tube Amp

I just wanted to add my perspective regarding running tubes with Martin Logan speakers. I have Vantages in a dedicated room with a lots of bass trappings and panels to deal with first and second wall reflections. I am running two Depth i subs that are EQ by a Velodyne SMS-1. I run the bass by using an older CJ MF 80 which allows me to run a true bi-wire set up. Using a CJ MF 2500 on the panels. This gives me a flat response from 20 to 250 hertz.

Now regarding my experience with tubes; I desperately wanted to run tubes on the panels because of what I've read about how wonderful they sounded here on this site. Therefore I bought the Mc 275 that replace a SS CJ MF 2500. After extensive tube rolling I kept the 275 in my system for about 6 months. I really enjoy the listening experience. Then one day I decided to put the CJ back into my system and I was blown away by the fullness and the dynamics I was missing when I was running the 275. With the CJ the music open up and flowed in such away that created the magic that was missing with the tubes. This made me realize that the MF 2500 was able to make vantages really sing perhaps of the high current it was able to provide to the panels. So I sold the 275 and kept the CJ to this very day. I know tubes vs SS is a subjective thing, but one thing I learned is that a component needs to stay in your system for long time to really judge whether one is better than the other. Sam