Sonic Frontiers to Conrad Johnson .

Its not really so much about money as the general direction that tube audio has taken in the past 10+ years. All of the majors, ARC, Sonic's Frontiers, and CJ have moved away from the "warm" sound of tube amps from the 80's and early 90"s.

Its my belief that they were trying to respond to complaints of loose base, warm midrange and rolled off highs, all of which to some extent obscured some detail. Resolution, extended highs, and a tight bass became the priorities of most modern tube units. Some folks will say that CJ's are warm(er) but in comparison to what. When I got my ARC SP10 in 1983 no one would have called this a "warm pre-amp" but today, in comparison to modern pre's from ARC or just about any manufacturer you might call it romantic! Same for tube amps but maybe less so. If you want to get that old warm tube sound your going to have to buy some old tube equipment. If you had less demanding speakers you could get one of these new units made in China that put out about 40 tube wts but that wouldn't be near enuf for your speakers. But, for example, that little Primaluna is a good old fashioned big warm tube unit.

Some of the classic tube pres and amps still bring fairly decent prices 15 to 20 years latter and often they need to be re capped, etc. Think ARC and CJ both. But there are others......have fun exploring the internet. :-)

You kight try a c-j Premier 14, their 1st Premier-level preamp with RC. I believe they're c. 41500 but I could be wrong.
...RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preatube&1115098120
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So I am curious... why so stuck on the speakers? I have never been a big fan of b&w... and while I own a lot of vintage gear (and appreciate their sins of omission) I think the Sonic Frontiers stuff is very musical... and not in the least cold (room playing a heavy factor here... never mind personal preference).

My advice would be to dump the b&w's. I also think things like digital eq and active biamping may generate a lot more benefit than changing pre/amp (then again, if you just want new gear... that is another topic :-).

Brainwater, no I'm not kidding!
And it's not a joke that SF Line 3 is clearer,faster,with better focus,more information,with more qiet signal and more revealing sound than CJ Premier preamp which is dark, mellow,with no neutrality.I'm sorry about that...
The warmer sound IMHO is not the point.
When you hear music from Line 3 the orchestra is excactly right there.When you hear from CJ, the orchestra is somewhere there...!!!
That's the point for me.

Athens , i really thought you were in fact kidding. Sorry. Its hard to tell in writing sometimes. Didnt mean to offend. I do agree with newbee in that the CJ gear i have had in my system was not warn and colored by any means . Those days have come and gone i believe and the musicality of top end CJ gear is second to none yet articulation of the musical notes is clean and accurate. I think the chain is a determining factor of course but i find quite frankly their new products inspiring. I had access to the Sonic Frontiers line stage a couple of months ago and it was as you said , clean and fast but did not remotely posess the soundstaging properties , decay nor musicality the CJ had in spades. Its just my singular experience and is to be taken as such.