According to Audio Beat August 17 article, Jeff Fischel is now the owner of CJ, Jeff has been w/the company since the late 80's. Good to see they din't sell to outside interests. Hate to have another Thiel car crash. Also some new gear is on the way. A new ET 7 preamp and a high end Headphone preamp are on the way in 2018. If you look at the current CJ website the ET 5 isn't listed as a current preamp but is in the vintage category. Wonder if the ET 5 is gone??
If the ET-5 is one step below the Gat does that make the ET-7 equal to the original GAT. That would make the ET-7 a huge bargain. And $500 less than the ET-5.
CJ ET5 and ET7 are very close in sound as they only really changed the high voltage power supply.I was told if you have ET5 the big sound improvement is going to the GAT 2 i am very happy with the sound of the ET5 in my high resolution system.CJ makes great stuff with very high sound quality.Enjoy.
Hello. My name is Roberto Herrera, and I represent Conrad Johnson, here in Costa Rica. I got this email from Lew...
" Dear Roberto,
As you will have seen from our most recent newsletter, Jeff has taken over the business at conrad-johnson design. I am delighted to have our business in his highly capable hands. Jeff will be making all business decisions and supervising/overseeing operations at conrad-johnson. Bill and I will focus our energies on product development and marketing. I will, of course, want to remain in contact with you and several other of our distributors who I am pleased to count among my close friends. Know that I will be happy to continue to assist in whatever way I can.
warm regards,
Lew Johnson..."
My understanding is that Lew and Bill sold part of his Company to Jeff, and now Jeff is taking all the logistics for service and sales...both Bill and Lew will continue with the company... I do believe this is a very wise decision for all...
Right now, I am enjoying the sound of the two recent products, the power amp model Classic One Twenty SE and the new preamplifier model ET-7. I really do like a lot the change that I did to my system... Regards, from Costa Rica, Roberto.
From what I read about Jeff Fischel, he seems to be committed to continuing what made Conrad Johnson successful in the past.
When McIntosh was owned by Clarion, they said they were committed to continuing what made them successful in the past, but got them into car audio (which was never successful) and some cheaper equipment that was not consistent with the equipment the founders made.
Hopefully the new owners of B&W won't take that company down a road where they cease to do what made them great.
Is the LS-28 the most economical preamp they make?? I had a SP-16 it was an excellent preamp. They made excellent affordable preamps. The LS-28 is a pretty expensive entry fee to get into ARC unless you buy used.
eek, is that the consensus out there, that ARC has lost their way? That's the first time I've read that sentiment, unless we're talking about the pricing structure of their product line. IMO, as long as they have the same electronic design team, it's the same company. But they could use a new, more economically-priced line; I think everyone is in agreement on that.
So happy Lew & Bill passed the baton to longtime employee Jeff Fischel. Great company but in need of new blood to get new dealer's in place and show people how great their gear sounds. I hope they do away with the phone message system and go to a live person answering the phones! I would not want to see CJ go the way of Thiel, ARC and other great audio companies who lost there way! Wishing Jeff & crew a great year and much continued success!
Thanks! for sharing linnlingo Jeff was poised for this position and will continue to do great things for Conrad Johnson. I had heard that this transition would take place soon. Good to read that Conrad and Johnson did not sell to an "outside" interest. Happy Listening!
Owned CS 1.5, 2.2 and 2.3 and extensive listening sessions to many Thiel models, the 2.2 were my favorite, couldn't believe how beautiful the piano sounded on this model; those new stiffer drivers ruined it for me and never went back.
Not the most stable company. Around mid-July Tom Malestra the CEO was let go. The third CEO since the new Thiel took over. Not very accurate on the dealer list either. They still have Fidelis in NH. They dropped Thiel over 4 years ago. They won't take them off the list. Enough about Thiel any thoughts on the CJ change in ownership?
^While I agree, in that I found some of the older designs preferable, but I couldn't disagree more! The post Jim Thiel designs are an anethma to JIm Thiel's legacy.
"Thiel ar crash"? The big new Thiel speaker i heard at Axpona this year was worlds better than the old designs. Frankly, the previous 10 years of Thiel had been a diaster, imo.
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