This should do it!

[SteveFord]

The intro to The Beatles "Revolution" got me thinking about dynamics which is always a dangerous thing.
So, we now have this incoming:

[admin]

Oh boy! Nice one. Let us know what you think when you put some hours on it. Did you just buy it or is it already in the system?

[SteveFord]

I just bought it, it should be here late next week if all goes well.
I spent a lot of time here reading about the various preamps trying to get an idea of what's what and any problem areas, seeing what was popping up for sale and reading the reviews.
This looks like an end of line(stage) product for me plus the design reminds me of Frank Lloyd Wright.

I am really looking forward to getting this!
This should perk the Maggies up.

[Big Dog RJ]

Ah! The CT5!
Very very nice matey. That will perk up the maggies without a doubt! Get ready for some serious acceleration and speed, lookout!

Been using the CT5 after numerous top line preamps, from VTL, ARC, Sonic Frontiers, and nearly every CJ pre I've laid my hands on. I got a few things modded but all I can say is between far too many pre-power combinations and various types of speakers, so far this particular one allowed me to create a custom sound thanks to its deep chassis. So plenty of room to service and keep the unit in top notch performance. It's a mighty fine preamp.

Now that deserves a mighty big Woofty Woof'n!!!
Enjoy those very fine tunes!

Do let us know how it all goes and once it has nicely settled in. What are the major changes in your sound and how it uplifted the overall performance between power amp and speakers.

Cheers, RJ

[SteveFord]

Will do.
I don't know if I mentioned it but the upstairs master bedroom system is Sonic Frontier SFL-2, VTL MB250s, Magnepan 1.7s, Well Tempered Classic w/ Ortofon 2M Black and a Jolida JD-9 phono stage.
THAT is the sound I'm trying to replicate downstairs but a step or two up.
That Premier 17LS has done everything except for the dynamics.
The upstairs system will part your hair down the middle.

[admin]

I see you are running a JD-9, is it stock or modded. I wrote the most popular instruction guide for modding that particular unit, that is why I ask.

[SteveFord]

The only thing I ever did was tubes and power chord.
I'd love see it if it's stil available.

There was a fellow over on Audio Circle, many years ago, who was really going to town on one.

[admin]

Here is the link to the topic with downloadable instructions and further down is a link to the massive JD9 thread on Audiokarma:

https://www.conradjohnsonowners.com/vie ... ?f=15&t=13

I would highly recommend changing the caps and the opamps. It will really take this little phono preamp to the next level and it's a very modest investment.

[SteveFord]

Thank you, that will give me a little project.
We wound up using the same tubes.
The JJs work great in that Jolida, they were horrible in the 17LS. I was just so disappointed and back they went.

If anyone is interested, for the the 17LS it was Sylvania (very good), Toshiba (okay but one died after 2 days), EH (little strange sounding but they are still new), Amperex (too bass heavy), RCA (Godawful), JJ (even worse)!

[admin]

Yeah, i've found that the same tube will be really great in one unit and not ideal in another. I really thinks it takes trial and error or somebody with a deeper knowledge base in tube selection (than what I have). The JD9 performs really well with the JJ tubes so I would keep those in there, IMHO.

Note- be careful with buying opamps from dealers on ebay and those kinds of places. There is a big fake market for them. Try to get them from somewhere reputable like parts express (BTW, you can get the dampening treatment sheets from them as well).

[SteveFord]

It is here.

The first thing out of the box was this is rather substantial, it's kind of like a two chassis model stuck into one.
It came with Sovteks but I put in new ones as I can NOT find a setting for testing these tubes. It doesn't look like anyone else has had much luck, either.
Hope my new tubes don't have any shorts, looks like there's only one way to find out.
No fireworks or explosions so I guess I'm in good shape...

85% of my CDs are CD-Rs burned from an album (Hhb BurnIT Plus 830 with a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 preamp and Well Tempered Classic, Ortofon 2M Black, Jolida JD-9) and they sound really close to the actual album.
So, I put on a CD-R of Brian Eno/Robert Fripp's No Pussyfooting and played it at a fairly low volume and got to experience that new tube sound I hate so much. It got better as time went on but it still has a ways to go.
CD player is a Rega Saturn, I just love the sound of that thing.

Once everything was warmed up I put on a CD-R of Frank Zappa's Apostrophe and turned up the volume a bit.
WOW!
Other than that new tube glare, I can't find fault with this preamp.
Tonally, everything is just right. It brings out a lot of bass but it's not bass heavy, it's not tilted towards the top end, it's just what I was looking for.
Dynamics are right there, this brings out more detail than anything I've had the pleasure of owning and the soundstage is really something.
It's very wide and deep and every so often it'll bring out something I hadn't heard before and it'll be outside of the speakers where sound couldn't possibly be coming from (like the entranceway to my front door because there's a wall there).
I like the VTLs so much as they really produce a 3D soundstage and this preamp really does a great job there.

This should do it is right.
I'd been searching for years for the preamp to go with 3.7s and a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 wasn't quite up to snuff, a deHavilland UltraVerve 3 was getting much closer but it would bury the details, the Premier 17LS was really close but I could tell it still needed something a little better.

I did a lot of reading of reviews on various sites and decided that Big Dog RJ had similar tastes in sound quality so I paid particular attention to his posts that he did here over perhaps several years. I'm happy to say that he was right, this preamp is stellar and is the perfect match for the rest of the system.

As I was listening, I got to thinking this isn't just an electronic component, it's a drug.

A couple of final thoughts:
because the soundstage is wider it's also more focused in the center, it's as if you moved the speakers two foot closer together. The center is just right THERE.
As it also brings out more detail you can hear all the inflections of the human voice.
Franky Zappa was snarky as hell and you can hear every nuance of his voice during that silly story about Nanook The Eskimo.
Apostrophe' has a lot of stuff going on and instruments were not just positioned left, right or center but also up and down in space.
Tina Turner just floats out from about 6' off the ground to the right - it was just perfect.

I can't really think of anything else to add. This is the first time I've been happy with the 3.7s. Getting the 1.7s to sound right was real easy but because the 3.7s are better speakers I was having a hard time finding components good enough to match them.
Not any more.

[admin]

Congrats. Awesome and glad to hear things are going well. CJ and maggies are a great match.

BTW- be careful with those CR-R's, they're are not meant to be archival format and I have tons from the 90's and early 2000's that can't be read anymore. If you fear loosing them, I would back them up to a hard drive (or play them from there in the first place. With how cheap storage is these days, lossless CD quality flac is typically under 400 mb per album.

[SteveFord]

So far I've only had one that was a blank slate and I thought maybe I forgot to hit finalize.
I just burn them from my albums and there's no chance of me getting rid of my records.
Everybody sold theirs off when CD came out but not me! Back then it was buy the album, record it to cassette and put the album away so the majority of them are like new.
I held out forever with CDs, now I'm holding out forever with this here new fangled high-rez stuff.

Thank you for putting this site together, it is a tremendous resource.
I'd heard an awful lot of preamps and nothing really stuck out as being what I was after.
The publisher of Tone Audio recommended conrad-johnson a long time ago and a buddy (F1 Nut, prez of Polk Audio forum and a really knowledgable guy) recently suggested it but I didn't know beans about the models until I started poking here to see what I could pick up.

[roberto]

Hola Steve,

Congratulations with your new toys. Your Magneplanar are going to be happy with them for sure.

Same thing here...still have over 4K LPs, and also have VPI record cleaning machine, model 16.5 to keep them clean...but the surface noise kills me. I can make a special lub fluid and the noise is almost non, but too much trouble...that´s my truth. Of course I do enjoy mu Linn Sondek LP12. Right now I have it with a Denon DL-103R that my dear friend Jeff Dorgay (ToneAudio Mag) recommended to me with highly praise.

I was a Magnepan user too. I had the Timpani 3B model. That was some time by now, I am a panel type speaker's user.

I am waiting my new DAC. Same model as Admin recent acquisition. As RJ Says: enjoy those fine tunes!

Happy listening!

[SteveFord]

Thank you.
Yep, never get rid of your albums, I've got more coming (what else is new).
I've got that same RCM and had to make a new chassis for it as they used melamine but the underside is unfinished. The solution caused it to get damp and then it disintegrated.
VPI should be ashamed of themselves.
It was ET-7, CT-5, back and forth and then this CT-5 popped up and I said MINE, all done.

[Big Dog RJ]

WOOF WOOF!!!
Enjoy those fine tunes!
Best, RJ

[roberto]

Thank you.
Yep, never get rid of your albums, I've got more coming (what else is new).
I've got that same RCM and had to make a new chassis for it as they used melamine but the underside is unfinished. The solution caused it to get damp and then it disintegrated.
VPI should be ashamed of themselves.
It was ET-7, CT-5, back and forth and then this CT-5 popped up and I said MINE, all done.

I make my own solution and really works! I use Isopropyl alcohol at 20% with double destillated water, liquid hand soap about 5% and that's it. I got this formula from a friend that used to work with Nitty Gritty. He said that the formula is more complex, but the one that he gave me works fine too. The water with the cleaning agent, when vacuum, vaporised and there is no rest of humidity. Mine has over 25 years, and works well. The cleaning process takes some time to do it right. Three to five times to wash each side...but the result really it is neat job.

There are several ways to get the fungus out of the groves...and also a special brush must be used too. By the way, the Linn has a Magnepan Unitrack tonearm. It is a uni-pivot tonearm. Tracks beautiful, and it is made of carbon fibre. You and adjust while playing the album, the vertical tracking angle. You do this, and when it is optimal, your ears do tell. Opens up with a great stage size. I love it.

Good for you with the CT-5. It is a great preamp too. As I always say: My liking not necessary must be yours! My previous pre was a CT-5 and now I am a very happy user of an ET-7. I find it more organic...and more transparent. My speakers are very demanding regarding transparency. Also they are very precise with the coherency.


Happy listening!

[SteveFord]

If you can, post pictures of that turntable, I'd like to see it.
I do distilled 75%, ispropyl from the drug store for the rest with a couple drops of dishwashing liquid.
I think the missing ingredient is for film developing, photoflow? I've never purchased any so can't say for sure how well it'll work.

I was basically given a Well Tempered Classic by a buddy who's the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group (Lenny Kaye).
Like me, he has more crap than you can imagine and one day he asked me if I was interested in a turntable.
Oh, I dunno, maybe...
He pulled it out of a pile of boxes, picked it up and it spilled goo on him. What the hell is that?!?

[roberto]

73D54330-A7D0-4CDB-802B-3F053D8EFB5F.jpeg (2.97 MiB) Viewed 730 times

Sure, this is my TT.

9900C4F1-F077-45A0-A22E-DDC9DFDB8420.jpeg (2.8 MiB) Viewed 730 times

Happy listening!

[roberto]

At the back of the tonearm, there is an Allen tool, you can adjust the vertical tracking angle while playing the disc...very clever, right? When I bought this tonearm, was at the SCES headed in Chicago, long time ago. When you enter to Magneplanar room there was a table with a nice big wood block with a nail. The trick was to nailed more with the back of the tonearm. They were showing how strong and also how light to tonearm is. It was impossible to break the tonearm.

I sum up, the possible tonearm cartridge resonance with the carbon fibre was non, and also a very light arm...and uni-pivot... if you look the pic, the cartridge is off of alignment with respect of the plater. When the arm is tracking the groves of the record, it moves along with it, following the groves, and making this to have less surface noise.

Happy listening!