As a CJ17LS owner, I can heartily recommend it. Soundwise, it's an elite performer and gives you much of the performance of the heralded CJ ART. However, there are a few caveats.
I believe CJ kept the basic design of the ART, but, in order to bring the price down, some tradeoffs were necessary. The primary tradeoff is that it is not designed to drive long cable runs or high capacitance cables. If this is a factor, try the CJ 16LS or the Sonic Frontiers you mentioned.
In that same realm, there are other excellent preamp makers with slightly different features/sound to consider - ie. First Sound, Joule, ARC, Pass, Placette and Aesthetix. Besides sound, I find that a preamp decision can also be heavily influenced by other features such as:
HT Bypass option
Tube/SS
Amount of gain
Remote
Type of volume control
Current production model or not
Balanced versus Single-ended inputs/outputs
Make sure you consider all these aspects before making the decision best for you.
I believe CJ kept the basic design of the ART, but, in order to bring the price down, some tradeoffs were necessary. The primary tradeoff is that it is not designed to drive long cable runs or high capacitance cables. If this is a factor, try the CJ 16LS or the Sonic Frontiers you mentioned.
In that same realm, there are other excellent preamp makers with slightly different features/sound to consider - ie. First Sound, Joule, ARC, Pass, Placette and Aesthetix. Besides sound, I find that a preamp decision can also be heavily influenced by other features such as:
HT Bypass option
Tube/SS
Amount of gain
Remote
Type of volume control
Current production model or not
Balanced versus Single-ended inputs/outputs
Make sure you consider all these aspects before making the decision best for you.