TEA2 Update

[AnotherJohnson]

The CJ website has included the TEA2 as a current phono preamp for about 10 years. It’s stereo, but only has inputs for one TT. There is a low gain model and a high gain model.

There were three levels of parts quality. In order of increasing quality, they were known as the TEA2, the TEA2 SE, and the TEA2 MAX. In the case of the TEA2 MAX, it was no holds barred. Everything was at the flagship level.

I have a TEA2 HG MAX, as well as a TEA1s1. In my opinion, the 54 dB gain TEA2 MAX in my system sounds as good as the 54 dB gain channel of my TEA1s1.

The update that I’m sharing is this:

I communicated with CJ this morning to find out the current price, and JF said that CJ has not built any new TEA2 MAX since 2013. So they’re really rare. Steve Javaherian has one for sale on his highperformancestereo.com web site. He is asking $3900. He claims the msrp to have been $7350. I think it was at least that much.

I’m about to put mine up for sale too … the dreaded downsizing to one primary system is underway. This isn’t a classified. When I sell mine, I’ll offer it on Audiogon. The purpose for this note was to share that the model is quite rare and that they haven’t built more in 9 years.

[admin]

Interesting. I was not aware that a new one had not been produced in almost a decade.

[AnotherJohnson]

Interesting. I was not aware that a new one had not been produced in almost a decade.

I was shocked. Jasmine said “There is no TEA2 MAX.”
Jeff said “We haven’t made one since 2013.”

I honestly think that it competed too effective against the TEA1s1 on the non transformer channel at half the cost. It didn’t make sense to put so much into a model below the flagship.

FWIW, the TEA2 allows resistive cartridge load changes, but no capacitive changes. The TEA1 allows both on the non transformer channel.

[AnotherJohnson]

A few other things.

First, I had no trouble whatsoever getting responses from my email inquiries to CJ. The responses were “same day,” I thought this was excellent customer service, and on questions not related specifically to a new sale or service.

Second, the tuning allowed by the resistive load adjustments of the TEA2 have been more than adequate in my experience. On the TEA1 I leave the capacitive load adjustment in its default setting. The REF Phono 3 does not even have capacitive load adjustments. My old Linn Uphorik had them, and Linn called out silly values, like 54, or 47, or 51, or 342 … I dutifully set capacitance as Linn dictated. Then, when I bought an ARC PH5 (not even REF series), it blew the Uphorik away.

The TEA2 adjustment rocker switches are inside the unit. You have to remove the cover access them.

The TEA1 adjustment rocker switches are on the back side of the unit, by the rca jacks.

The Uphorik adjustment rocker switches are on the bottom panel, so the unit has to be turned upside down to access them.

The ARC PH and REF Phono units don’t have rocker switches. In the case of the PH units, you scroll through choices with the remote control. In the case of the REF Phono, each load choice is represented by its own button on the remote control.

[Big Dog RJ]

Pretty much the same deal here down unda... not many TEA series phonostages have sold since my last SE- Max upgrade on the TEA2SE. These units are now quite expensive as is everything else in the highend...

So, most are going for phono-preamps under 3grand; Rega, Project, Cambridge Audio, Rotel, Arcam, NAD that sort of level. If upgrading to a significant level they tend to look at Mission Cyrus, which is pretty decent considering the lofty prices of CJ and ARC gear, or any other top level stuff like Allnic or others. The Rega Aria-2 has taken top podium here, real vfm and exceptional performance. I had one! But after I experienced the CJ and ARC gear phonostages, I decided to sell it off. It was a very good phonostage no doubt but not quite the level at CJ or ARC, obviously not!

Wouldn't mind it though in a second system, a simple one: CAV45 S2, Aria2, RP8, and a nice pair of ProAc monitors on stands, marvellous! Looks like I found my retirement system!

Cheers maties, RJ

[Bhope58122]

For info, the upgrade path from SE to MAX is also no longer an option. I wanted to take my SE up a notch bit was told that my only route would be to trade up to the TEA1S3. Something I'm not going to be doing in any hurry!

I'd be happy to carry out the upgrade myself if anybody could let me know the brand of resistors and capacitors used in the MAX. I'm guessing they're proprietary to CJ? (Well, the Caps at least?)

[AnotherJohnson]

I’ve run into that parts issue before. CJ bought enough high end precision resistors (I think from an Israeli company) to build a batch of CA150 SEs, plus a small overage.

They ran out of the spares and stopped offering to upgrade CA 150s to the SE version.

The precision resistors appear to be cost prohibitive unless you buy enough to take the lot. They couldn’t get them in small lots to upgrade a few units.

They discovered this as my CA 150 was in the shop for the upgrade .