Matching CJ tube amp for ls17 pre

[maplegrovemusic]

I have recently purchased the CJ Premier 17ls. I now would like to mate it with a CJ tube amp . I would like one that was made to mate with the 17ls pre ? Any suggestions ? Thanks

[admin]

I think this really depends on budget.

Without monetary constraints my number one pick would be the Conrad Johnson ART amp.

[maplegrovemusic]

So any cj tube amp will be a good fit as far as compatibility in gain , voltage , ect ?

[admin]

I would pretty much say so. I think a bigger consideration would be what kind of speakers your are using. If you have a low efficiency planar speaker (like I do for example), you really need some power behind it. I think any CJ amp is going to "mesh well" with the Premier 17ls, if anything gives you trouble, it will be the speaker.

[maplegrovemusic]

Ok thanks, Another question I have is about the 17ls itself . I have only owned it for a short time . The volume display goes to 99 . I find the sound to get harsh on most recordings in the 30 range . I am used to dial volume controls where the sweet spot is around noon . That would put it in the 50's on the 17 . What is a common level for normal listening levels ? I am thinking it is not mating well with my solid state Proceed amp ?

[admin]

Not sure why it would sound "harsh" at a specific volume level. I'm not intimately familiar with the electronics of the 17ls, is it possible that one of the resistors is bad, and when you get to the lower volume area it's causing problems? I think "normal listening" volumes is highly variable based on the amp and speaker itself. If your in the top or lower 20% of maximum and minimum volume that would generally be strange, but I think there is going to be great variation in between.

Trying it with another amp to see if the "harsh" sound goes away could help narrow down the problem to a specific component.

[Joe Appierto]

Although admin's conjecture that one of the resistor's might be bad is possible, it's more likely that the Premier 17LS's output gain of 26dB is higher than the preamp(s) you've used before. As a result, you may be driving your Proceed amp into clipping at a "lower" volume than you're previously used to. Unity gain on the Premier 17LS (and some other c-j preamp models) occurs at 66 on the volume/level display. At unity gain, the preamp is passing the full source signal.

This is from the Stereophile May, 2001 http://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/370/index.html review of the 17LS:

As is usually the case with a tube preamp that doesn't use negative feedback, the Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS provides way too much amplification for practical use. With the volume control set to its maximum position of "99," the voltage gain measured 25.9dB. The volume control, however, is sensibly arranged to operate in large steps at the top of its range (with some numbers duplicating the level; for example, "99" and "98" are both equivalent to the maximum gain), but in smaller, fraction-of-a-dB steps in the range where the control is most likely to be used. There was no exact unity gain setting; it would have been between "66" and "67," while the -20dB setting was "37."

Hope this helps.

[Ray]

In my own case...using a CJ ET3 ET5 and GAT...they all seem to have a higher output than a "typical" preamp... meaning that when I drove JC-1s with the GAT, the volume control for typical listening was in the 20-40 range...with 40 being fairly loud.

Using CJ Power amp(s) which appear to me to take into account the higher output level from CJ Preamp(s) the typical volume level is 30-50 for me.

Having said that, even using with the JC-1s, I never detected any harshness. I'm however not at all sure if what I'm saying relates to the LS-17, as I've never owned one.
There are high quality in-line attenuators available that as an experiment could be inserted at the power amp's input.
Bryston power amps do generally have input level setting capabilities, or maybe a CJ power amp would be a better fit than your current Amp.

'might give CJ a call or email also..
Good Luck.

[maplegrovemusic]

Thanks for the link . Sounds like the cj is a mismatch for some amps. I thank you .