AR & CJ's Secrets?
west
most revered SP-10 & 11 preamps, I have to wonder, how do they do it? I know
this question is rather sophomoric, but your answers may be able to put many
things into perspective for me, thusly I will be most appreciative for all
your comments. Many of you have designed incredible amps and preamps over
the years with similar components and circuitry, but what does AR & CJ do
differently that we (at lest the upper echelon Rodents) can not duplicate? I
heard these aforementioned equipment and simply had a life experience. Do
you think it's something as simple as proprietary Xfrs? Remember the lush,
romantic midrange to kill for by Conrad Johnson's CJ-5 preamp? What was so
special about that circuit?
Cordially,
west
Patrick Turner
AR and CJ wouldn't have sold many amps unless they advertised
fiendishly.
They also got in on the ground floor a long time ago before many other
names.
If anyone tries to build a tube amp empire in the US these days they'd
be committing financial
suicide unless they engage the services of all the friends they could
muster in China.
Then its a Chinese amp.
But anyway, after the first few nice simple things these companies made,
they tended to use maybe 11 devices in a signal path when only 3 would
be fine.
I don't think they have a monopoly on being able to produce excellent
sounding amps;
plenty others do OK, and I don't know if you have ever serviced many of
either, I have,
and some of them are plain difficult, awkward, and over-riddled with
complexity
and parts, some of which have had their numbers removed to prevent
anyone knowing exactly
what j-fet they may have used, so you can't just buy a generic part
from any dealers.
Any dedicated audiophile with practical and technical abilities
can make something at home that will perform as well or better than the
high end amps.
Patrick Turner.
coffeedj
"Patrick Turner" <in...@turneraudio.com.au> wrote in message
news:45E0F99C...@turneraudio.com.au...
Bret Ludwig
Yeah, all ARC and cj circuits are available for study. That's the
part called "paying your dues". Many hobbyists have built these
circuits. I personally do not hold a terribly high opinion of ARC and
cj products in general either for robustness, ease of service or
sound.
"Lush, romantic midrange" tends to be code for bass and treble
rolloff and/or second order undesireable distortion.
I don't think transformers are in the signal path in any ARC or cj
preamps. Maybe one of them used a transformer for MC cartridges, but I
doubt it. The power amps use output transformers that do not appear
to be any particularly special quality.
Bret Ludwig
> Any dedicated audiophile with practical and technical abilities
> can make something at home that will perform as well or better than the
> high end amps.
>
Generally better, only because the big names are increasingly sitngy
with build cost.