Conrad Johnson Owners.com

G'day Jerry, Glad to hear all is running smoothly and those tubes are a glowing! With output tubes failing or rather deteriorating over time, the symptoms are easy to spot unlike those smaller tubes. 1. The overall sound becomes dull, very low dynamics, no sparkle, no transient control and pretty f...

Thanks for pointing out the need to update my signature.... done! Thanks for the positive comments. It has really been an incredible experience listening to well-known track as what seems like "the first time." My maggies seem to really complement these beautiful amps. @AnotherJohnson. Do...

You might consider something larger in the Harbeth line. I am using Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 speakers with my C-J Classic Sixty SE amp and it is an outstanding match up.

Jerry

I needed a couple of screws for my PV-12AL. I e-mailed C-J Customer Service and they sent me a bag of screws for free!

Jerry

RJ, Sounds like you paired your Classic 60SE with some mighty fine speakers! I'm surprised that the amp worked so well with stats. I found a site selling all kinds of vintage 6189 tubes, but I just don't have the ambition (or the spare cash) to do an extensive comparison. I actually don't enjoy tube...

OK I checked on my 6189 and it's a JAN 6189W made by Phillips ECG in the U.S. Again, I don't know how many hours are on this tube so it might be tired as well.

Jerry

RJ, I found my 6189 quite dull sounding compared to the Brimar CV4003 that I'm running right now. I think the Gold Lion 12AU7 is also superior to the 6189. I believe there are various manufacturers of the 6189 so my comments might not be valid for all 6189 variations. In my ARC LS17SE I'm running El...

V1 on the Classic Sixty SE is a 6189 tube, which is the equivalent of a 12AU7. I have an genuine 6189 on hand (I forget which brand) and to me it actually sounds worse than a Gold Lion 12AU7 or a Brimar CV4003 (another 6189/12AU7 equivalent).

Jerry

Well we seem to have a consensus on the Gold Lion 6922 being a mighty fine tube at a good price! How about the Gold Lion 12AU7 - have you guys had any experience with that? I tried it in my Classic Sixty SE for a while and was happy with the results, although I'm currently running a NOS Brimar CV400...

Well it appears my tube issues are not over. I noticed some fuzzy sounding static in the left speaker with the amp at idle and the preamp muted. This is the same channel that has the BEL 6922 tube that flickers on startup. I swapped the BEL 6922's from side to side and sure enough, the noise moved t...

RJ, Thanks so much for the info - exactly what I needed! I've actually never run an output tube into the ground due to old age. The only output tube failures I've experienced over the years have been loss of vacuum due to cracked glass (shipping damage) or catastrophic failure due to screen shorts (...

RJ, indeed I'm enjoying my system tremendously, apart from the occasional neurosis over tubes! I was interested to read your comments about the Gold Lion 6922 - I was running these in my amp prior to installing the BEL 6922. The Gold Lion 6922 are a nice tube for the price and even have gold plated ...

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I guess I will relax and enjoy the music!

Jerry

I have a Classic Sixty SE amp running two NOS BEL E88CC / 6922 PHILIPS SQ DESIGN tubes in what I assume is the phase inverter location, both sourced from Upscale Audio. I have noticed that one of the tubes has some slight flickering going on inside the tube, in the vicinity of the Mica spacer, right...

If the Classic 62 uses the same output transformers as my Classic 60SE, you can see in the attached photo that the wiring schematic is printed right on the bottom of the transformers. You can also see that the unused wires are coiled up and the ends capped - it does not look like it would be difficu...

I enquired about this upgrade back in September 2019 for my PV12AL and C-J told me the only upgrade available for my preamp was the Teflon capacitors, for a cost of $1,146 (any needed minor repairs included). I decided against investing this kind of money in my PV12AL as I was ultimately interested ...

RJ, I know exactly what you mean - the first time I replaced the MF2100 with the Classic 60SE, I knew immediately that it was something special. The Classic 60SE had a certain magic to it that I had not heard with any other previous amp, whether tube or solid state. That's been my experience with hi...

Tim, Wow - Harbeth 40.2! You went straight for the pinnacle of the Harbeth line! My 7ES-3 come in at a much more modest price point, and yet I am delighted with them. I can think of no aspect of their performance that I am unhappy with. It's quite possible these may be my last set of speakers! In sp...

I have a C-J Classic 60SE tube amp and a C-J MF2100 solid state amp. I had the same concerns regarding heat - the tube amp really heats up my small office! I got to wondering as well if the MF2100 would be a decent summer alternative. In addition, I saw a lot of postings on the Harbeth forums from A...

Yes agreed 110%, well said Jerry. As I've mentioned many times before ... my benchmark in improvement has to be around 40-45%. That's a very high margin in terms of performance and improvement in overall sound. Over the years I've found that the upgrade path is only incremental and these changes ca...