Premier Four tube recommendations

[RobertaZ]

My beast needs some new tubes and I was wondering what owners of that amp are using. I used to have problems with the EL34 tubes burning out and taking related parts out as well. My techie recommended using SEC Winged C's which I have been using for a few years without incident.

Are there other better tubes that folks would recommend for this amp? I am obviously looking at those which will not fry the amp - so opinions from owners of the Premier Four would be most appreciated!

R

P.S. Does anyone know what brands C-J uses as the stock tubes for this amp?

[RobertaZ]

Anyone?

[Tommd]

Sorry for my late reaction. I,ve got the CJ premier four for more than 25 years now and i,ve got excellent experience with TungSol El 34 tubes or General Electric 6ca7. Youre choice depands on the type of speaker..

[roberto]

Hola RobertaZ,

What I do is when I am adjusting the bias, once I have over 30 minutes of listening to the music, I stop the music and re-adjust the bias for each tube. When the LED goes of, I bring 1/4 turn counterclockwise the adjusting bias screw. This makes to have a little less bias, and I will sacrifice a little power (the final watts of each tube). This way, I do save them for more time of use. There is not way to tell if you did this. My ears do not detect any sound quality variation with more bias. I do trust in my ears. They are the final judges of my system quality.

Happy listening!

[Capt.Willard]

I have had and read of others having good luck with the EH mullard repros.

[RobertaZ]

I am sorry for the long delay in thanking folks on this forum for your feedback. Does anyone else have any hands-on experience with EL34 and 12AX7 tubes in their Premier Four amps?

Thanks!

[Big Dog RJ]

No direct experience with the Premier 4 amplifier but plenty of experience with various types of EL34's. Not sure why your Premier 4 is burning up EL34's for no good reason, and you say it burns out taking out related parts... sounds like a more serious problem with other areas in the power supplies that I would get checked. No matter what tubes you choose to use, this seems like an aging issue with the amplifier. The Prem4 is quite old, I would definitely get it looked at, especially at this stage. With a full service and update on parts and specs. CJ gear is not known for just burning out tubes...unless there were other underlying issues.

Anyway, apart from Winged C EL34's, which are very good, over the years of using various amplifiers with EL34's, I ended up with the Mullards. This is the same brand of EL34 that CJ currently uses with their standard non-SE version amplifiers, including the CAV45. The Mullards are superb!

First, get your amp checked though.

Best, RJ

[RobertaZ]

Thanks RJ,

I think that having the amp checked out is probably a good first step. Hopefully, I can find a reputable shop in the Toronto area that can do that for me. Thanks also for the tube recommendations.

R

[AnotherJohnson]

Thinking along RJ’s line …

1. Is it fused properly? Old units often have incorrect fuses.

2. NOS and old used tubes typically have less life due to vacuum leakage compared to new tubes.

Of course getting the amp checked out is a good idea. It is old enough to need recapping if that hasn’t been done in a recent decade.

[Big Dog RJ]

Yes, CJ's Premier series amplifiers were built on high standards, and those were meant to last a lifetime. Although the Premier 4 is quite old... nonetheless it's a true CJ classic! As with any of CJ's Premier line up, it's always possible to rejuvenate these older amplifiers. You may not get the original type of sound, due to various things changing internally... but that typical CJ golden glow of their signature tube gear is all there in full glory with these Premier series amps. They are truly special in every way, no matter how old they are.

Restoring these sort of amplifiers takes commitment and dedication. It does get expensive but then the question is, are you really going to spend a fortune to get any of CJ's newer gear, which does cost a fortune or can you carefully go about the required upgrades and do them as and when necessary. Also something any qualified service tech would know. These are based on very simple circuits using high quality parts. So, you may not be able to find original parts but there are alternative parts that are even better! It's a matter of finding the best fit, as close to the original as possible and then weighing in your costs, and checking if it's worthwhile.

Once you do get the Premier 4 back to spec, I'll say one thing, it will be very hard to beat given the price and fraction of upgrades compared to the newer gear.

I just recently auditioned a pair of Premier 8A monoblocks (fully upgraded to the full SE version) driving a pair of Audio Analysis Omega's, wow wee! Now that's what I call a "Premier sound!"

Cheers mate, hope it all goes well. Oh! And do enjoy those fine tunes!
RJ