|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
108.30.217.188
Anyone have any clues what a conrad johnson pv10 sounds like ? I had a marantz 7c that I played vinyl through s.s amps and the sound was truly amazing (only a 1person sweet spot). The system remains the same with out the 7c. I need a budget replacement for under 1k. That i dont have to rebuild The pv10 seems in that range. Can I duplicate the ambiance I once had ? I wonder if I waited a while and bought the mcintosh c2500 for 5g,...what kind of sound ? Dont like the electronic sound of some newer circuit board stuff. What do I do?
My wife said try walmart, hahaha,
Any advice?
Follow Ups:
A lot of talk on this forum lately about Conrad-Johnson. Tell me C-J experts, what are the classic preamp models, I.e. which ones are most desirable or are particularly well-thought of? I'm not talking about collectability, but rather sound quality.
~!
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
I have no experience with the modern designs. However, if you want to travel back 20+ years for a more classic tube sound, two I thought were real gems are the PV 5 and Premiere 3. Preferred both over the PV-8 for example. Still own the Premiere 3 in fact. A good friend of mine who possesses an excellent ear always raved about his PV 2AR. Maybe not the last word in resolution, but wonderfully musical. I once remember Bill Thalman telling me he preferred the Premiere 2 (over the 3) for essentially the same reason.
Great thanks for the feedback.
Mine is an original 10 w/phono, not 10a or b. I had the gain lowered with a resistor and the line stage 5751 changed to a 12AU7. I also had Vampire jacks installed along with Discovery hook-up wire.
The pv10/McCormack does provide warmth/richness with balls, and enough detail for me. The Prem. 3 is definitely a better phono stage, not sure about the line stage in 'em.
I've really enjoyed my pv10, but the pv10, pv5, and Prem. 3 all have too damn much gain in the line stages for a sensitive power amp like mine. Past time for an upgrade/change for me and my next preamp is gonna be something that has much lower gain, and probably one that employs 6SN7's.
McCormack amps have a LOT of gain, making them difficult to pair with high gain preamps. Add to that a hot source, like a cd or dac that outputs 4v, and you have very little volume control even with a medium gain preamp.
Yep, reminded of the gain issue just last week. Brought the old CJ Premiere 3 out for a little exercise. I'd went from an 88 db speaker to a much more efficient 95 db speaker in my HT/casual set up. Without thinking, I set the volume control just below the nine o'clock position as I usually did with the 88 db speaker. When the music started, I was nearly blown out of the room. Had to dial it down to BELOW 8 o'clock. Fortunately I have a tube buffer upstream with a volume pot. I used this the trim things out to where I had a little room on the CJ .....at least enough to where I could take it to the nine o'clock position. If one had something crazy efficient like a big horn, I think there'd be some output with the vol. pot all the way down. Yep, this issue was present in my PV 5, PV8 and even my A.I.Mod 2B. Beyond 9 o'clock was verboten. Apparently this was a design flaw they couldn't seem to rectify back in the day?
~!
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
I just happened to have a pair of Wright 2A3's years ago. With the CJ Premiere 3 as a pre-amp in fact. The vol. never went beyond 9:30 as I remember.... maybe 10 when using a cartridge with around 1 mv output. Speakers used were Spendor 2/3's. The only active tube pre-amp from that era I could ever take to 12 o'clock or slightly beyond was a Music Reference RM-5 III which had an adjustable gain feature. The lowest gain setting allowed this range.
CJ 5 driving George Wright monoblocks... into Khorns.
I have a Baldwin 6L6 that is even harder to drive whereby was @ 3 o'clock.
At any rate the gain structure of that preamp {the Premier 3 is almost the same as PV-5} would not allow me to go over 9 o'clock with a Dyna 70... the point being some amps are far harder to drive.
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
another great post in this thread. Tweaking can be great. I am totally with you on the excess gain in so many line stages. With todays sources almost all 2V out or more a ;line stage w/ 6-12db gain at less than 1K ohm output impedance (lower is better esp for long cable runs) is plenty, maybe even over kill.
E
T
to learn that the PV-10, 8, 11 and 12 share basically identical line stages. Difference are in parts quality primarily. The 8 had extra gain in the line stage to enable phono MC users to have enough gain for a low output. The 11 was CJ's all out attempt to star ground the entire preamp circuit (it failed, and CJ revert d back to tiered grounding which was significantly quieter for the phono stages, especially).
If you are handy with a soldering iron, a change out of the coupling caps on a PV-10 can effect miracles sonically.
great post, too bad CJ doesn't have schematics too or you'd see what Stu is saying. I do like the balance control in the 12, it is different.
E
T
As they say, Google is your friend…
Alex
Thanks but I was only wishing CJ would also have their schematics. I'm aware of Google but thanks for the tip. I already had that schematic from that site. Great site.
E
T
Sorry - I didn't intend to be catty. I must have mis-understood your post, since I assumed you were meaning that the CJ schematics were unavailable.
Alex
You'd need a PV-10B to get a phono stage. Most PV-10's were linestage only. Second I can say as a dealer I never cared for the sound of this preamp. I'm good with a PV-5 or the PV-12 that was just serviced by Bill Thalman here in the AA classifieds. A little more $ than you want to spend though. The 12 has a cool balance control w/no potentiometer. It has like 10 positions of matched resistor networks.
E
T
Edits: 02/13/15
the PV10A had a phono stage. The PV10AL was the line stage.
AB.
What "should I know" about 15 year old products? I "was" a dealer until 2005. That's ten years ago. What standard are you unrealistically holding me to? Also you are overlooking a lot. There was a 10, 10A and 10AL introduced in 1989,92 and 93.
BUT then the PV-10 B and 10BL came out in 2000. So what will you comment now? I guess I wasn't wrong then was I?
So YOU as an Internet user need to know that all vintage CJ products can be looked up at the link below
E
T
I never said there was not a 10B, I had one. YOU should use your link to know what you are talking about, before you give wrong advise.
There is no need to get so upset, even a dealer can be corrected sometimes by a lowly internet user.
Neither did the OP say it was an A, AL, B etc. So we still really don't know what he has. Maybe an early 10. This is why your "correction" and "should" were called into question.
I saw many people refer to their preamp simply as a PV10 when it was an A or B or AL both in person as a dealer and here on the net.
When I get attacked I answer back. Let me know when I have to be perfect on a regular basis if you like. Why you decided to attempt to denigrate and attack me I have no idea. Feel free to do so in the future.
Keeping niggling with more comments like "lowly Internet user"..... oh and Internet is to be capitalized by the way. Now perhaps you see what it is like to get a taste of your own medicine and what a waste of time it is.
A correction to say an early 10 and a 10A also had phono stages would have been good too by the way. Let me know which of my posts you are going to read and I'll go over them and make sure they are perfect for you next time. Sorry I was human.
E
T
I have to ching in and say anything recently gone over by Bill Thalmann will be improved from the original. Guy knows his stuff. I bought one of the original CJ solid state 80w amps and after he got done with it, it was stellar. Before he worked on it, I was unimpressed.
Yes he is good. He used to work at CJ and left. He does great tube guitar am work as well. He ain't cheap, he ain't expensive either. Well worth what he charges.
E
T
+1 for Bill. Not cheap, but worth it.
Nt
One of my favorite pre-amps( PV-5 )over the years. Still have a Premiere 3. Both have terrific phono stages. Can't speak for the 10. Never heard one.
(nt)
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: