ET5 arrives!

[Rafale]

Originally Posted by Rayooo

was a very happy Magnepan 3.6 person up until January this year, then I hear mention of 3.7. Well, that started a spiral of sorts. Ordered the 3.7s in January and they just showed up two weeks ago.

it was only a couple months back I'd heard of the ET-5. I'm a relatively new CJ person, 'had a classic and ET3, liked them both very much!

I guess about a year ago I did an experiment whereas I purchased a W4S DAC-2 and began experimenting with FLAC playback via J-River, Kernel streaming to the DAC. The experiment was a fantastic success and thus it basically put my Marantz SA11S2 out of business.

So, sold the Marantz for pretty good $$, traded in old preamp and thus was able to swing the ET-5.

Power amp is Primare A32, I seem to be the only person on the planet who owns one. it works will with the maggies & it's pretty good at simply passing along what's fed to it.

I've always been a proponent of having the pwr amp as neutral as possible and capable of driving whatever speakers are preferred...then tweaking the overall system sound with preamp. (in my case always tube based preamp!), cables, etc.

I guess in some respects both CJ and Maggies fall into "ya either love them or hate them". I absolutely positively love the combination, spent 10+ years finding it, but now have.

The ET5 is already making me smile only an hour or so in. wow, sorry for the rambling.

another CJ lover Rayooo it is great to meet you
thanks in advance for keeping us updated about the ET5 break in
Philippe

[cmalak]

Rayooo...great to see the Red subscriber banner next to your name right off the bat Also, looking forward to your comments on the ET5

[Tonepub]

I highly suggest an EAT tube once you've got about 500 hours on your preamplifier. It makes a huge difference....

[Rayooo]

'no more than about a half hour after first firing up the ET-5 did I start thinking about a bit of tube tweaking, and it'll be EAT for sure.

I'll probably end up popping one in even before the thing is fully broken in.

[Tonepub]

The great news is that they are supposed to last about 10,000 hours and you only need one!

[Puma Cat]

There's only one tube in the ET-5?

[Rafale]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

There's only one tube in the ET-5?

it seems...
for information
EAT ECC88 selected 110 euros
EAT ECC88 diamond 160 euros
can t wait the 500 h level for the swap

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

There's only one tube in the ET-5?

Yup, 1ea. 6922 mounted on a little flex sub-PWA, presumably to cut down on the tube picking up external vibes. And with 24 of those cute little volume control relays "cliking" away when one changes the volume, it's probably a very good idea!

My ET-3 had no balance adjustment, it had 12 relays only. With the ET-5 it's double the fun.

a single 6922 definitely makes tube tweaking a bit easier than if one had to roll 2, 3 or more tubes at a pop.

[Rafale]

Originally Posted by Rayooo

Yup, 1ea. 6922 mounted on a little flex sub-PWA, presumably to cut down on the tube picking up external vibes. And with 24 of those cute little volume control relays "cliking" away when one changes the volume, it's probably a very good idea!

My ET-3 had no balance adjustment, it had 12 relays only. With the ET-5 it's double the fun.

a single 6922 definitely makes tube tweaking a bit easier than if one had to roll 2, 3 or more tubes at a pop.

Rayooo
any small noise like a diapason decay , in your speakers to be heard when you change the volume at low level ?

Philippe

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by Rafale

Rayooo
any small noise like a diapason decay , in your speakers to be heard when you change the volume at low level ?

Philippe

On both ET3 and ET5, with ear against the speaker (no music playing of course) if one runs the volume up/down you can hear faint "cliks" from the speakers themselves. This is actually somewhat similar to what I used to hear on an old preamp I had with a stepped attenuator volume control.

The cliks are no louder at full volume than at lower volume, and are impossible to hear from listening chair. Having said that, when seated, the audible relay noise from the chassis probably masks any chance of hearing cliks emanating from the speakers themselves.

these definitely sound "electrical" in nature and do not have that micro-phonic sound at all. I had a tube go bad in the ET3 where the relays were "microphonically" ..if that's a word, cross talking into the tube. None of that here.

One other thing I did notice, on ET3 with volume control set between 95 and max, a slight hum was present in the speakers (again listening up close) the ET-5 is dead quiet all the way up to 98 with a very slight hum present at 99.