Coincident Linestage vs CJ CT5 or Allnic L-3000

Received a new Coincident Statement Linestage last week. Paired with Hypex NCore NC400 based monoblocks, running a balanced configuration.

Israel shipped it day after payment and I got it within 7 days.

It's really very good. Transparent, dynamic, detailed, smooth, and spacious. It also runs cool, and is quiet, no tube hiss, no hum, and no noise of any kind. It is without any fault I can identify.

Music is detailed, extended, and fast -- but coherent and, well just plain musical. You can listen with a critical ear if you want or sit back and enjoy the tempo and flow of music without distraction.

I'm very happy.

I recall the single box Dude as bigger in every dimension than the two box CSL. But it isn't so much the size as it is the proportionality. The Dude looks like a preamp made for Andre the Giant.

Maybe some people like that. If I had more space and a dedicated listening room, I think it would be ok. Anyway, it certainly sounds pretty terrific, as does the CSL.

Yes, I owned a Shindo Aurieges for a little while. Vocals are superb but otherwise it was a bit too romantic for me, murky and veiled compared to a Lightspeed LDR, a TRL Dude, an Atma-sphere MP-3 and the CSL.

My I understanding is that the more expensive Shindo preamps are also more transparent.

By way of comparison to the CSL:

From my memory only, the Atma-sphere MP-3 has a bit more drive and bass impact and I recall is a bit more extended. But also the MP-3 has a higher noise floor, a bit of tube hiss and was (in my antiquated house) somewhat sensitive to dirty power and voltage sags.

TRL Dude is more romantic, a bit more tonally colorful (which I liked). But its size (truly gigantic) and proportions (the volume knob is bigger than the palm of my hand), its outrageous style (the word "Dude" is what, 4" tall?) make it inappropriate in a shared space. If I were to ever have a dedicated listening room, the TRL would go back on the short list.

The CSL is characteristically in between the TRL Dude and the MP-3. But neither in my opinion are as neutral and balanced in presentation as the CSL.

Build quality is first rate, switches feel robust and expensive. Quiet, noiseless, unfussy. I feel it will endure a lifetime of use, or at least 20 or 30 years without a thought.

My wife, who has better ears than me, says its her favorite preamp so far and thinks the system sounds wonderful. Either that or she's finally tired of me swapping out gear ...

It's been about 3 weeks now. I leave the preamp on almost continuously to help break it in. It doesn't run particularly hot, so no worries there.

There have been no burps or hiss or hiccups of any kind. It just runs quiet as a mouse. Don't think the mute switch works, seems to just filter out low frequencies. Maybe it's not mute so much as more muted than not muted at all.

Anyway, hardly worth complaining about as there are other ways to mute my system, including just hitting the pause button on the iPhone.

Okay, three weeks later, what's the verdict? Best darn preamp I've ever had. No complaints, this one's a keeper.