Opinions/Thoughts on the CA200 ....

I just wish some kind audiophile would sell me their Premier 350!

[Puma Cat]

Premier 350s are unstable and can blow up if not handled correctly. This is why C-J discontinued it and replaced it with the ET250S. If you want Pr350 sound, as Ron has pointed out, you should get a CA200.

Thanks...was hoping for more juice to power my Maggie 3.7s during the summer months when I'm not running tubes. Although, having preamp and amp in one package sure is enticing.

[Puma Cat]

Do the summer months get that hot in Portland that you don't want to use tubes?

We have one A/C and one thermostat for our entire home, and my media room is on second floor where a/c already struggles to cool the room even before the tubes kick in. 8 KT88s plus 4 6sn7s do raise the temperature at least a few degrees in the room. One option is to use money to buy a second 300.1a and better air conditioning!

[Coppy]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Premier 350s are unstable and can blow up if not handled correctly. This is why C-J discontinued it and replaced it with the ET250S. If you want Pr350 sound, as Ron has pointed out, you should get a CA200.

I'll have to strongly disagree with you about the instability of the PR350. Sure, if you short the outputs after it's been running a while, that big caps that make all that power will unload in a big way. So... don't do that. Mine and everyone I know who has one has had no issues. I'm sure CJD would aggressively disagree that they discontinued that highly regarded amp for that reason. People want to buy tubed equipment from CJD... it was a bit of an outlier in their product line.

I called CJ and told them if they came out with an "anniversary" version of the 350 they would sell out in a hurry, and I'd be first in line.

[turntable]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Premier 350s are unstable and can blow up if not handled correctly. This is why C-J discontinued it and replaced it with the ET250S. If you want Pr350 sound, as Ron has pointed out, you should get a CA200.

Interesting. I was reading the M Colloms hifi critic review of the Wilson sasha's and he put on his reference cj prem 350's.

playing vinyl, the cj 350A power amp became violently unstable,not through acoustic feedback but some kind of electrical feedback. It was as if the 350A was not well disposed towards the Sasha's known low bass impedance. heavy low frequency transients set it off, sending an electrical ripple back to that sensitive moving coil preamplifier

When I owned the 350A. it used to just switch off for no reason, or electrical feedback into the pre amp and switch that off - almost as if it was not grounded correctly - a bit scary

I know cj's tube power amps never do that - in fact they drive Wilson speakers brilliantly

Originally Posted by turntable

Interesting. I was reading the M Colloms hifi critic review of the Wilson sasha's and he put on his reference cj prem 350's.



When I owned the 350A. it used to just switch off for no reason, or electrical feedback into the pre amp and switch that off - almost as if it was not grounded correctly - a bit scary

I know cj's tube power amps never do that - in fact they drive Wilson speakers brilliantly

How do you like your CJ GAT amp?? What did you compare it to before buying, if you don't mind me asking?

[ronenash]

I will try to relate to a few of the things said in one post.

The Premier 350SA had a revision made because of the shutoff issue. CJ sent a simple update to all dealers to avoid this problem. Its was a simple 5 minute fix. You do need to drag the beast to your dealer.

Regarding the blowup issues mentioned, to avoid degrading sound quality, CJ did not put any protection circuits in the 350. There is no series resistor, or short circuit protection. With all that power, if you short the output it will blow up. When this happens its a mess and many components need replacement. You need to get the components from CJ as they use such high quality components that they are not available off the shelf.
Of course you can avoid all this by simply powering off the 350 and waiting a few minutes before connecting and disconnecting cables.

CJ stopped making the 350 because of two reasons: (1) There was little demand for non tube gear from CJ and it was not selling as well as they hoped. Personally I think this is insane as all reviews stated that this is one of the best amps around! (2) The manufacturing costs of the 350 were very high and required a major price increase which CJ did not think they could charge for the amp.
If it ever goes back into manufacturing do expect much higher prices than before.