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Oh, yes. That would be Bill Thalmann, yes? I have 2 sonographe sa250s I was running bi-wired then thought, why not through the CJ MV55 into the mix and it is glory. The only thing is a small background hum so I'm waiting on a iso max.Funny, I just bought jumpers so I can UN-bi-wire my speakers. Sounds like you are bi-amping as well. It's a great idea, as you discovered--the solid state portion can provide plenty of cojones for the bass, and the magic tube power goes to the mids and highs.
I previously had Vandersteens and they benefited a lot with bi-wiring from the same amp. (They were also fussy about how they were set on the floor--the bass tightened up a lot once I got the proper stands for them.) But my newer speakers have a powered bass section built in, so there's no real need to bi-wire since there is so little current draw from the bass. That way I can get more of the tube power to the panels. I did the bi-wiring a little differently though--I'm using the braided Kimber cable, so it was just a matter of pulling some of the strands for the highs and others for the lows.
My tube amp is headed over to Music Technology in Virginia to check out a bias issue I'm having (one of the owners worked at C-J as their technical director for a couple of decades, and he'll be working on the amp for me). He's also doing a couple of modifications, like installing an IEC socket to replace the damaged power cord, and doing the "A" revision to the bias LED circuit. Bad thing is, shipping that thing, insured, is going to be about $110 each way, and I may have to ship the tubes separately. (I have the factory shipping carton coming to me in a couple of days.)
...the solid state portion can provide plenty of cojones for the bass, and the magic tube power goes to the mids and highs...
Yep, Bill's the man for this sort of thing, so, off it goes. And that MV55 is a classic.Oh, yes. That would be Bill Thalmann, yes? I have 2 sonographe sa250s I was running bi-wired then thought, why not through the CJ MV55 into the mix and it is glory. The only thing is a small background hum so I'm waiting on a iso max.
Took three weeks to get the shipping carton from C-J, but it arrived Thursday and I sent the amp off with plenty of insurance yesterday (Friday) and a list of things to check on. It only has the one issue, but want to upgrade it to the "A" revision, verify 4-ohm wiring (they come from the factory), install the IEC socket and check on a minor channel imbalance.Yep, Bill's the man for this sort of thing, so, off it goes.
I really love the Conrad Johnson sound. Let us know how good the restore/upgrade goes.Took three weeks to get the shipping carton from C-J, but it arrived Thursday and I sent the amp off with plenty of insurance yesterday (Friday) and a list of things to check on. It only has the one issue, but want to upgrade it to the "A" revision, verify 4-ohm wiring (they come from the factory), install the IEC socket and check on a minor channel imbalance.
Given the cost of the shipping carton and the shipping charge, it wouldn't have cost me much more to drive it down there myself.
It will probably be a few weeks if not a couple of months, depending on their backlog. I'll be happy when Bill fixes whatever component failed and gives it a clean bill of health. (I'm guessing a power supply component, since all four tubes cannot be biased properly.) The "A" revision was only a capacitor across the zener diode for each of the bias LEDs--it was supposed to be a slight reduction in background noise (which is nearly silent anyway), but I'm thinking with that, and a verification of everything else being adjusted properly, it should be in good shape once it returns.I really love the Conrad Johnson sound. Let us know how good the restore/upgrade goes.
I emailed and my amp is one back from the front of the queue now. I'd figured three months, and I'm pretty near being right.I really love the Conrad Johnson sound. Let us know how good the restore/upgrade goes.
The anticipation must be EPIC!I emailed and my amp is one back from the front of the queue now. I'd figured three months, and I'm pretty near being right.
I'll be honest--with so much going on, it feels like I dropped it off at FedEx just two weeks ago! But yes, I'm ready for it to come back home. I miss that liquid sound the tubes were giving me.The anticipation must be EPIC!
I get it. It is frustrating and the amount of money is staggering. I only have one phono input on my Audible Illusions, but 3 tts, so I pulled the APT Holman pre out of retirement. Two tt are hooked up and there are 2 tape loops and an ext processor loop, so it works fine. Audible illusions is a good phono stage but also high-gain enough to make it difficult. I went with a low output denon cartridge and a step up transformer and it has helped.I'll be honest--with so much going on, it feels like I dropped it off at FedEx just two weeks ago! But yes, I'm ready for it to come back home. I miss that liquid sound the tubes were giving me.
I've since been swapping phono stages and tonearm interconnects, trying to track down a very faint noise issue. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the C-J phono stage in the system--I swapped in the Phonomena II+ and noise dropped a slight amount. I already have new low-noise tubes in the C-J, so I don't know if that's just an inherent issue with the EV1 or if it might need to be dropped off at Music Technology for a once-over.
One thing I don't like about it is that it is a higher-gain phono stage with 49dB of gain, whereas most phono stages with high output cartridges (moving magnet, or moving iron like my Nagaoka) have a 40dB gain. With 49dB, I can barely use the preamp--the volume control won't lower the sound level enough. Plus it also overloads the SugarCube. I do have some 10dB attenuators (from one of the local audio club members) but they are not really an ideal way to handle too much gain. Music Tech might have a way to lower the gain internally via a modification--it only has internal DIP switches for cartridge loading, and I keep it at the standard 47kΩ setting. (The others are more for medium or high output moving coils.)