Audio Research CA-50 seek user experience

Great unit - *****
If you are broke and are looking for great sound, look no further! Must use good tubes, bias skills is mandatory, once it gets hot............watch out! Great sounding 40 watter!

Gave up my Krells for this! Did not want to get into the Monos, interconnects, pre power and space and was looking for a small setup that is more musical than "calling my friends over to see my new $10,000 power amplifier" situation, I did that all before.........interconnects up to $4000 for a 1 meter pair, and now I have grown older and I am much more matured about commenting on new software then looking for the pot of gold hardware.

Use it with an efficient speakers like 90db or more, I am using this with an Audio Physic and a very very good source!
Analog mostly and you really wont need to look for a new amp! Only problem is you will keep blowing all your cash on new cd's or LP's.

Hifi Choice did a review of this unit around 4 years ago, they very seldom then reviewed amps such as this in the UK since it much more pricy over there, but based on the review , the unit was priced for 3500 pounds sterling, they gave it a all 5 stars for sound/ built/ value so..........just an idea! GOOD LUCK!

I owned a CA50 for a couple of years after sifting through a number of separates of similar or slightly lower price (Anthem, CJ Sonographe) and an NAD 317 and used it very successfully with a pair of Spendor SP1/2a's.

Compared to the others I had recently tried, the ARC was very transparent and had a lower noise floor. The power output was lower than the others in every case but with these I didn't feel anything amiss. It is a true high end component, and cheap on the used market for what it sells for.

When I replaced it with a flagship Pioneer AVR and went HT the things I missed were the see through transparency, the very low noise floor and the PRAT. Funny, every time I go back to tubes I love the musicality but then I revert back to the user friendliness of SS.

Hope this helps.

Has anybody compared the Audio Research CA50 against the Conrad Johnson CAV50?