CJ's New ART88 Preamp

Please consider this an early impressions report.  I might write again after more listening time.  First let me explain that I retired at the beginning of the Covid Pandemic with the result that my time with my GAT2 was quite extensive, definitely the most listening in my audiophile life which began in the mid-1960s.  I found the GAT2 very easy to listen to for long periods of time because it was very neutral, had no bad habits such as grain or noise and it had excellent delineation of detail without any discernable artiface.  The ART 88, adds considerably to these virtues, which is surprising to me.  First and most striking is that it displays a far greater sense of excitement.  There is just more impact imparted to each and every part of the entire audio spectrum.  Greater depth, starting in the lows, but really across the board.  Every note just seems to standout in relief.  The depth and feel, the richness of the sound is noticeable on every type of music:  Piano, strings, percussion, perhaps most of all on vocals.  I can't say the sound stage is wider or deeper, but it seems like each performer stands out in greater relief somehow.  I remember years ago shopping for pianos and hearing a profoundly good Model D Steinway and it just shook me up.  Goose bumps it sounded so good.  This ART 88 is like that.   The wow factor is off the charts.  To say I am delighted with my new ART 88 is an understatement.

Thanks billstevenson for your early impressions.   Exciting sounding preamp.  Longtime CJ preamp owner, currently using an ET5 but intrigued by the ART 88.

The ET5 is a wonderful preamp too.  I know because I had one for a couple of years.  Whereas the GAT2 was better, though, it offered incremental improvements in several ways over the ET5, the ART 88 is a much greater improvement over the GAT2.  I am listening to George Shearing accompany Carman McRae on an extraordinary Baldwin as I compose this note and I have to keep stopping to marvel at the quality of the reproduction on an old favorite record.  Earlier I listened to Ahmad Jamal and had the same reaction.  It is like I am hearing these recordings for the first time.