Cary Audio SLP-05 or Conrad Johnson ET7 S2

in general i feel cj > cary

but the slp-05 is widely well regarded, and it has been viewed as cary’s very best effort (i have had other cary preamps but i have never had the slp05 in my own system)

my guess, and it is only an educated guess, is that cary’s voicing would be slightly more tubey at the frequency extremes than the cj et7-2 (which i do have in house) - the new cj et7 is very transparent and extended at both frequency extremes, has terrific transient response and impact, while dealing out a good dose of tube magic to voices and acoustic instruments

hard to go wrong with either choice - and perhaps ergonomics might influence choice... the cary is a two chassis unit needing more than normal real estate on a rack, whereas the cj et7 is notably ’slimline’ in form factor

I wonder why this feature is not available with more preamplifiers. Total audio system gain is an issue that has to be accounted for.

i would suspect the answer would be cost, complexity, and potentially, slight sacrifice in sonic purity as a result... but i totally agree that gain and impedance matching is critical in a system of disparate components, so the flexibility afforded by the cary design is a definite plus