Coincident Linestage vs CJ CT5 or Allnic L-3000

Charles1dad,

Did you get a chance to try the WE 101d's and if so what did you think?

I am still waiting for them to arrive.

The thread seems oriented towards the fine tuning and amelioration of the Statement through better 101d's tubes.
neverthless I add my experience, I recently had the opportunity to compare in my system Allnic L-3000 and Coincident statement (the latter I listened previously in two friend's systems). Both are not imported here in Italy; test were not side to side but in two different days. obviously same configuration, identical cables, same music etc.
My reference was my linestage Aria WV11XL (the Mike Elliott's design), power amp is again from Elliott an hybrid Altavista NP220 premium (400kohm impedance).
I had great expectations and I was not disappointed, I listened to two fantastic preamps and among the very best to find on the market in a reasonable class of price.
Sonic charachter was slightly different; timbre and texture was a tiny better with Allnic that shows a very nice balance and better coherence from bottom to end. Both linestage have a truly first class detail; especially during the adagios in classical music they are absolutely superb revealing minimal ambience details and great focus. I find some difference in presentation of music, which is (very slightly) more advanced with Allnic and more distant with the Canadian product.
In some symphonic program I would prefer a similar presentation as the Statement performance, since I’m used to listen from 3rd to 10th row at concert’s hall but this is only my taste...
Coincident is undoubtly much faster; it’s easy to hear with some piano solos or acoustic guitar when it sounds fantastic, otherwise it’s sometimes slightly edgy in the upper treble; some unobtrusive sibilance appears occasionally so I suggest that it will be partnered with more caution with the rest of a system.
On the other side Allnic L-3000 was a better choice with choir and opera voices, more clear and refined..
On the dynamics side they are both excellent (along with my Aria); in my tests all units were very similar in gain configuration (approx. 18-20 db gain). I must tell that the Statement unit I had was also occasionally sensitive to RFI and loop mass noises.
In the subjective external appearance I find better refined the chassis of the Korean Allnic; which is clearly better thanks having a remote controlled volume, 5 inputs and a tape loop; the Coincident statement has only two inputs... very poor in flexibility also considering that it costs about half a price of Allnic...
But.. about sound quality I would be very hesitant to make a choice.. both absolutely excellent.
Just my twocents.
Marco

Hi Marco,
I appreciate your input on these two world class linestages. As you point out, you couldn't possibly go wrong with either fine choice. The CSL is roughly 1/2 the cost of the stellar Allnic. The CSL high baseline performance can be substantially increased by using the Psvane W.E. 101d tubes according to several experienced owners on this thread (still waiting for my W.E. tubes). So one can obtain genuine top tier sound quality for a relatively reasonable cost. That is quite an admirable achievement.
Thanks Marco,
Charles,

Thank Charles
I forgot to write that the CSL in my hand was indeed a unit with two years life and stock tubes.
Also interesting about my test it's the different tube approach of the three linestages:
CSL uses an unusual old tube and you can improve it with the new Western Electric production.
Aria WV11XL is a chameleon-like electronics, since it can use more than 20 (twenty!) different tubes and this cause a great change of nuances in details, dynamics (gain may vary from 12 up to 30 db) and timbre.. so is a very unusual product which can be adapted to all tastes; neverthless is the only of the three with a very high output impedance (3-4000 ohm) that force to find a partner power amp with at least 200-300kohm input impedance...
At the end there's the Allnic where you must use the stock tubes and forget all about tube rolling.
Three different approach; three different scaling price (CSL 5500 USD; ARIA with all options was sold at 8800 USD and ALLNIC now raised at 11900 USD).
My preference will go with a very little margin to CSL and L-3000 against my WV11; neverthless they are all excellent performers.
my best
Marco