CJ premier 8 - please share your comments

In the bass, you may be hearing room interaction more than a characteristic of the Premier 8s, assuming your speakers are still positioned as shown in your system picture. With the Premier 8s, you may have not "boominess" but actually more accurate and fully fleshed out bass that is now revealing that the speakers are too close to side and rear walls, or that the distances should be more different one from the other than now. Having the speakers right in the corner, as shown in the picture, will not be kind to a smooth bass response. If you have enough width, try moving each speaker towards the center by 6-12" and see what happens to the bass.
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Rushton - Agreed with your note regarding spkr positioning, but the pic is a little misleading since the left speaker is almost 1.5 mt from the back wall and 1 mt from the left wall- I have nearly 3 mts between the spkrs so I would try pulling them INSIDE the listening room first to see what happens.

Fernando

I have a friend who owns the Premier 8's in a very well tuned set-up.Rushton's comments are quite accurate regarding the merits of this really fine product.However my friend is using his CJ's to drive the mid/tweeter panels of his speakers above about 100 hz,so I cannot comment on his lowest frequencies,since he uses solid state Krell stuff for his Lows.The rest of the range is superb with these amps.Every accolade you care to ascribe to the sound.As far as your current speaker set-up is concerned,I am intimately familiar with the Eclipse's.I have a friend who owned them for 6-7 years.I currently own a pair of Avalon Ascents,that I drive with a modified Rowland 8t(2 chasis,second houses newer switch mode power supply,formerly battery).Based upon what you claim about your speaker positioning I would have to refer you to the EXCELLENT owners manual that came with these(ECLIPSE AND ASCENT).Here Avalon goes into great detail about optimum speaker placement,stating that you should not have too great a similarity between side and back walls.You are too close to the undesired locations to have optimum bass response.My speakers(That follow the exact same set-up distances as yours, are 8 feet from back walls and 3 1/2 from side walls.My friend's Eclipse's were 3 1/2 feet from side walls and 6 fet from back walls.Since these are sealed boxes with a low "Q" damping of cabinet,the bass can be superb if room loading is utilized properly.Avalon SPECIFICALLY claims that you should NOT have the side and back parameters too similar or you risk lower quality bass performance.Read the book again,or ask Avalon for a copy,if you bought the speakers used,and never got it.It is really an eye opening read,regarding some of the more popular,and actually less accurate designs so in vogue today.I suspect your amp issue will go away when you do so.In either case both the CJ and your current amp will be superb.Good luck.

Thanks sirspedy - Yes, I know the booklet and read it (this is my second pair of Avalon spkrs, first I got the Avatars some years back).

Problem is that my listening room IS also the living room, not too much room to play with (I won the battle with my wife of not placing ivory elephants on top of the spkrs already !!!)

Saying that, I also feel that I can play with some inches here and there and tune the speakers to a better positioning, taking into consideration all your comments here.

Thanks again.

BTW - I managed to extend the trial with the dealer for a couple of days more.

Fernando

Last day listening notes :

I think I have now a clear perspective of the differences between this very good amplifiers (I love this hobby!).

The PASS amp is really one of the best SS amps I have had in my system (just second after the Gryphon Anthileon I had some years back with Avalon Avatars). It has a great grip of the musical performance, exploding dynamics but easy to the ear, Very liquid midrange presentation and very neutral.

The CJ amp is a surprise for me, I have had many tube gear and never lasted for a long time with me due to their intrinsic euphonic presentation. The CJ is not a neutral amp, but it posses a magical presentation that makes me enjoy the performance, the lyrics, the strings--- the musician intention. It lacks the bass control and extended highs of the PASS, and I am having a hard time of deciding which to keep!!! (I need to plunk 3KUSD + the X250 to keep the CJ.)

A will appreciate a final word in this thread prior my decision, thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience on all the above messages.

Fernando