Conrad Johnson or PrimaLuna

kevin deal on youtube gets pretty hard to stomach after a while, but he means well, knows his stuff, like anyone, what he believes and purports is a function of his experiences - and of course, when he is talking he is trying to sell you something

primaluna is very very good stuff
cj maybe half a cut above in terms of overall quality

can’t really go wrong with either - they stand behind their products and they work well sound very good indeed

it is time when a lot of china bashing is well deserved

but let’s separate politics and authoritarianism from hifi gear and its fair evaluation

china makes a lot crap, but also plenty of extremely high quality items - like design and manufacturing of anything anywhere, it is what is your objective function, what is your management and technical skill, and your ability to quality control your output

thinking clearly and being intellectually honest requires good care and judgement in parsing and delineating important distinctions, compartmentalizing where it is deserved

@tablejockey

no my primaluna is the hp version, 4x kt88 per side - sorry i wasn’t specific

so in fact it is double the output tubes on the raven or standard primaluna amps

@ronrags

which rogue model?

lil sidebar given that this thread asks about cj vs pl

but it is interesting miller is so high on the ravens

i think anytime a manufacturer offers free extended in home trials it speaks volumes about the overarching confidence they have in their product vs the competition

i have been a die hard audio research and vac fan for many years, recently tried and like a primaluna... really good for the money in many important ways

but now may need to try a raven

miller - you have a raven in house? or are you thinking about getting one for your teks? my only concern trying a raven is my harbeths and proacs are a notch less sensitive than your teks -- wonder about db headroom

cj cav getting kinda old, make sure it is in good shape... might need a recap

primaluna is very good, there are other even lower price china made options like line magnetic or cayin, also very nice - stay with the better established brands with good track records, you will be just fine

don’t mind miller carbon and his derogatory china comment... his i-phone is made in china, he just doesn’t know it LOLOLOL