Any Conrad-Johnson owner here?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by dpod4

Great thread...just subscribed to it....I'm on the hunt for a Premier 350, and it sounds like from this thread they are veeeerrrry hard to come by! Bummer.

While they are great amps, you don't want a Premier 350, they are unstable and prone to blowing up if you disconnect/reconnect them to speakers w/o FULLY discharging the (very large) power supply capacitors in the amp. My local C-J dealer toasted an amp doing exactly this. C-J worked and worked on the problem, but whatever changes they made to prevent this from happening also caused the amp not to sound as good. This is the reason the amp was discontinued by C-J and the ET250S was introduced.

[Rafale]

[QUOTE=Puma Cat;209157]While they are great amps, you don't want a Premier 350, they are unstable and prone to blowing up if you disconnect/reconnect them to speakers w/o FULLY discharging the (very large) power supply capacitors in the amp. My local C-J dealer toasted an amp doing exactly this. C-J worked and worked on the problem, but whatever changes they made to prevent this from happening also caused the amp not to sound as good. This is the reason the amp was discontinued by C-J and the ET250S was introduced.


It is a well kept secret.... in any case on the European continent...

[Coppy]

Puma... my experience with the P350 is different than your suggestion having A-B my speakers it with my LP 140s on many occasions without an issue. Now... I'm real careful not to short the speaker outputs of the P350, powered on or not while I'm doing test listening switches. Guess that's what could do it, and maybe any powerful solid state amp could have the problem. After all, it's the power supply that gives an amp it's transient capability and there's no output transformer to protect the circuit.

[Rafale]

do you switch LP140/P350 power on ?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Coppy

Puma... my experience with the P350 is different than your suggestion having A-B my speakers it with my LP 140s on many occasions without an issue. Now... I'm real careful not to short the speaker outputs of the P350, powered on or not while I'm doing test listening switches. Guess that's what could do it, and maybe any powerful solid state amp could have the problem. After all, it's the power supply that gives an amp it's transient capability and there's no output transformer to protect the circuit.

Coppy,
That could certainly be the root cause. I was told of this failure mode by the owner of Spearit Sound, and it was confirmed by my local C-J dealer, who destroyed an amp due to this issue. Guess the bottom line is you need to be really careful.

[Pider]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Pider,
Are you looking for an amp to go with a C-J preamp?

Yes, but before I do that, I need to listen to a C-J anything. Can't find them anywhere in the Portland area. I must be blind; they have to be here somewhere.

And, why is it that folks who have perfectly good tube systems in their shop, such as ARC, try their level best to dissuade one from going with tubes?

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by Pider

Yes, but before I do that, I need to listen to a C-J anything. Can't find them anywhere in the Portland area. I must be blind; they have to be here somewhere.

Stereotypes (which is where I got mine in the early 2000's) used to carry c-j, but is now an ARC dealer instead. I don't get into Portland often, so I haven't really kept up with who's carrying what there these days. If you haven't already, you might fill out the inquiry form linked below on the c-j website to find the nearest dealer.

http://www.conradjohnson.com/It_just...rfindform.html

Jim

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by Pider

Yes, but before I do that, I need to listen to a C-J anything. Can't find them anywhere in the Portland area. I must be blind; they have to be here somewhere.

You're not blind, Pider. I submitted the dealer inquiry form myself this morning to find dealers near Corvallis and just received a reply from Ed at c-j customer service saying there aren't any. And then...

"We do have an excellent dealer to work with by phone if you'd like. Try contacting Spearit Sound (Northampton, MA)."

Jim

I can vouch for Spearit Sound, especially Jack Tozzi and crew. Great guys, straightforward.

[Pider]

I've been on their site, and I'm even going to be somewhat close by this weekend (Boston), but unfortunately I'm playing tour guide and won't be able to break free for a day of driving and listening. It's the latter that I need to do, obviously.

I'll have to insist that the good folks at Steretypes demo their ARC's for me. Whichever shop I've visited, all have tried to stear me away from tubes, citing the higher costs, higher fiddling time, greater care needed, crappy bass performance, etc. Thus, I've auditioned SS everything. What I want to hear is the best system, electronics and speakers, that will make me smile at a good cello or oboe recording, and good jazz ensambles. Yes, I'd like a good standup bass too, so I thought that maybe a tube pre with a SS amp. I love full orchestral, but not as often.