CJ Premier 14 vs. VTL TL5.5 & TL2.5

The Premier 14 doesn't have a phono stage built in ( you have to get teh Premier 15 phono stage), the Vishay resister volume is really loud on the Premier 14 and has a very limited volume range (ie it doesn't work with Lamms FYI). Make sure they ship it with the 4 locking screws and make sure you run tube dampeners. Everytime I used the volume control to make adjustments the tube will ring because of the way they use resisters in the volume chain... The Placette Active is cleaner and only has 1 Vishey in the signal path wereas the CJ uses 3 as a resister array to adjust volume. The CJ burns tubes and it took me 6 months and 3 roundtrips shipping it back to get mine working correctly (CJ used the wrong tubes the first time..) I'll never buy CJ products again after using their lack of service.

But I have to thank them as I bought a Rowland Synergy IIi and sold the CJ after doing a comparison... (no phono pre though for you!)

The VTL 2.5 is ok but the VTL 5.5 is way better because of the dual power supplies!!!

Wow Cytocycle, sorry to hear about your bad experience with CJ and the premier 14. I've had one for several years and had the opposite experience, great service and longivity on the tubes...go figure. I think this preamp is one of the best certainly in it's price range versus performance.

Pops: Sorry I mistated the comment about burning tubes.. I meant they sent me a tubeset for another preamp which burned up and caused the problem and then required it to be shipped back to CJ, when it returned it was really really noisy and unusable, so I had to send it back again, and finally on the third try back to them they quieted it down. The unit sounds very good and has the last of the typical CJ bloom which I really wanted in my system without having a CJ amp. Ultimately after waiting those 6 months of no preamp (they said it would take 2 weeks which became "we haven't looked at it yet." at 5 weeks, it was really frustrating.. Plus they billed me dealer twice for tubes and would not issue a refund.

Your mileage may very.... CJ told my friend on his 2500A amp that the transformer will hum and they wouldn't replace it because that was normal... "Normal?" to hear the mechanical humm from the listening position (not through the speakers?)..

I listened for years to a CJ Premier 14 & never experienced any problems. No noisy tubes or ringing. The tubes lasted until I got the itch to try something new. Nor do I have any complaints about CJ factory communications.
Likewise, I had good service out of a CJ PV10AL preamp and MF2250A amplifier.

I have not owned the prem 14, however I did own the prem16 and that sounds superb. very musical, quiet and the remote is a delight. I like the individual clicks it makes with the remote, it very easy to set the exact volume you like with 100 available steps.
I owned the VTL 7.5 and prefered the prem16 or cary 98P.