Conrad-Johnson Premier 350 discussion

[joeinid]

Hi Shane,

Congrats again. I am back in the Pr 350 club. I am not going to sell it. My switch is no big deal. Just push the left side until it soft clicks, then keep holding down for another split second and release. A few seconds later she springs to life with a slight, sharp pop to the speakers. The HIGH gain really bothers me, is a bit of a pain in the @ss and I really notice the noise. I've been using a Steve McCormack flex-connect with a 4:1 step down. Works awesome and is pretty transparent. It even helps me convert xlr to rca or back again. Your description is very accurate, but I find if the source is not perfect the treble can be a little sharp. I am sure my speakers are exposing this problem easily.

[turntable]

Hi Joe, thanks

Good to hear you are keeping the prem350. You need to get the GAT back Btw, what serial no are you guys? Mine is 8101186.

Honestly, if cj were going to bring out a new sota as amp, it can not be like 34db gain like this one.

I wonder if cj have a mod to reduce the gain, or would that also remove some of the magic.

I don't find the treble bothersome, but the Maxx3 treble is almost laid back, s the addional bite in the lower treble I'd welcome in my system ATM.

BTW, does anyone know when the prem350 production started and stopped?

[ronenash]

If I am not mistaken the high gain is inherent in the design since its a single gain stage with no feedback the gain is relatively high. In most amp the use of feedback reduces the gain.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by turntable

Hi Joe, thanks

Good to hear you are keeping the prem350. You need to get the GAT back Btw, what serial no are you guys? Mine is 8101186.

Mine is 81001114, only 72 units apart from yours.

[joeinid]

# 8101039 is mine.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by turntable

Thanks for the kind words gentleman. Very happy I stumbled across this. It sounds a lot better 2nd time round. That said, everything is different in my system.

First the quirks of the prem350.
Is it just me, or is there a secret handshake spot to turn this on. Huge power button but only a small position on the top just left of centre switches on the amp. Then a couple of internal clunks to switch on. I vaguely remember this first time round.

Man,is this thing HIGH gain. This I do not understand as all cj pre amps are also high gain. With high gain comes a bit more noise/tube rush through the tweeters. More than my tube amps. I would not like to be running CD as you would send your life between 1 and 10 of the vol control.

It's not that high a gain when using a CT-5 with only 19 dB of gain on tap. With my Wadia 121 running at 4V output, I am running at about 40 on the volume setting to listen at a comfortable, but not what I would call loud level by any means (with acoustic jazz content).

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by joeinid

# 8101039 is mine.

Well, it looks like they made at least 200 of them, or so.

Funny to think of how rare this amp seemed to be....virtually "un-locatable" around a year ago, and now, Shane, Joe, myself, Coppy, the former dodp4, lotus340R, sleepysurf and microstrip all have them.... that's quite a change in less than a year.

[joeinid]

I was thinking the same thing. Pretty funny.

If they offered a re-issue (with tweaks and fixes), I would buy it.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by joeinid

I was thinking the same thing. Pretty funny.

Certainly makes you think; hmm....Messrs. Conrad and Johnson now know where the stash of a bunch of their Premier 350s are....

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by joeinid

If they offered a re-issue (with tweaks and fixes), I would buy it.

Maybe they could offer a new, upgrade-style mod with tweaks and fixes so that existing owners wouldn't have to (re)buy a new one, they could just send their own amp in for the mod.

I wonder what they'd do different if they could have an amp back and re-visit the design from an intellectual perspective? Would it be a rethink of the power supply, main circuit topology, or output devices? Interesting to think about. It reminds me of how Nelson Pass started out with the original First Watt design, then continued to rethink that original topology with subsequent First Watt designs.