Tube preamp for SS amp

Chad2635,

I've had a CJ pre/Pass amp combo for several years now. It is one of the best combos I've ever put together. They seem to be made for each other. Hope you get a chance to try it yourself.

I wouldn't worry about the volume control, it's a very good one and they are important. It's not push, push, push. You just hold the remote or preamp button down and a motor moves it until you get where you want. There is the "clicking" but I got used to it immediately. As far as longevity, it should last a long time.

I've also found that the 3 CJ preamps I use, two ARTs (6922 based) and one ACT 2.2 (6h30 based), have been very compatible with other amps I have used...SET's, PP tubes and a couple Tripath based chip amps. !5' rca interconnects were no problem with my CJ's 500 ohm "average" output impedance.

Good luck with your choice.

Onemug, how quiet is the cj gear? Thanks for the feedback by the way!

Chad2635, My pleasure.

The ART and ACT 2.2 are very quiet. They are line stage only so I can't speak for CJ's phono stages. I do run an outboard phono stage thru the ART and it sounds great (and quiet).

In my previous post I meant to type that I use "15" foot rca interconnects. Somehow a "1" became an exclamation mark. Hate when that happens. :-)

A friend of mine has an Act 2 and it is very quiet. His system has speakers that are 105 db/w efficient, so they reveal the smallest amount of noise in the amplification chain and he has no noise issues with this linestage.

Interesting thread, I will keep close view of this one.