What's up with the conrad-johnson 11amp

el34--i'm purchasing a pair of premier 12's (moving up from my mv55). in this pursuit, i've spoken/corresponded with a number of cj owners. many of the permier 12 owners that i've spoken with (like 4 of 6 or thereabout) previously owned the 11a. they all had nothing but good things to say about the 11a. pretty much consistant with what chuck, schiss and dako have written--great amp, but let's have some more power. i have not heard/read one bad review of the 11a. and it took me much listening (to the 11a, the 11xs and the 12's) and soul searching to decide to bypass the 11a and move right up to the 12's. i was really, really impress with both the 11a and the 11xs.

Chuck,I think you are correct.I am one of the people who has an 11A for sale on here.I use it with Thiel 2.3's and it drives them fine,although a little lacking in the bass department.We all know that this is somewhat common with tube equipment.When I bought this amp I said to my friend "70amps is not enough power for me".His reply was that this is no ordinary 70 wpc.He was so right.This amp is as robust as they come for a 70 watter.I absolutely love the sound,almost zero distortion,and the hotter those tubes get the more 3 dimensional the sound becomes.I however am selling mine because I want more power.Looking to buy Premier 12's.I guess you can never have enough power.My friend calls me "The Hammer" because I love it loud.Don't be swayed by all the ads on here for Prem 11A.Go listen to one and if you like it buy it.I highly recommend it!!!

I just sold my 11'a at auction. It was a great amp but not enough power to properly drive my M-L reQuests. My new 8a's at 275 WPC made a huge difference. If 70 WPC will drive your speakers properly, the 11a is a wonderful amp. Scott

I agree with you that Conrad Johnson amps have a very satisfying sound. The Premier 11A is relatively low powered putting out 70 watts per channel into 4 ohms. I believe that it puts out 50 to 60 watts per channel into an 8 ohm load. That is really not alot of power for the money that a 11A is going for. So, sure power is a contributing factor. Most people want to drive their speakers to a moderate level and 70 watts is not much with most speakers. Hint here is to buy some speakers with high sensitivity for tube amps. But the biggest factor, I feel, is pure cost. You can buy a MV-75 used for under 1k it has 95% of the performance of a 11A and cost so much less. Also there is a lot of other amps that fall in this price range that have more power. An Audio Research VT-100MkI will run you about the same price as a 11a and has 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms. Rogue audio makes some decent amps in this price range that boast more power and etc... Finally there is the fact that one gets bored with the same audio system and feel the need to change. I see alot of audio research amps for sale too. Does this mean that something is wrong with their amps or that customers are dissatisfied? No it merely means that you have two of the most recognizable names in High End audio that have alot of product on the market for a good value so there are going to be more for sale. Quite simply it is a numbers game.