CJ service

[kzhtoo]

One of my 3 tubes is also EH 6922. In my system, Gold Lions is head and shoulder above better.

[AnotherJohnson]

One of my 3 tubes is also EH 6922. In my system, Gold Lions is head and shoulder above better.

Tubes vary even within model.
That’s why they’re graded. Ten Gold Lions will not all sound the same. Ten EH won’t all sound the same.

It is the goal of tube rollers to find the best tree in the forest.

Kevin is that sort of listener. He gets mad if you don’t like the hiss that accompanies the bliss.

My advice? Get used to the hiss … or go back to SS … or keep up the search for the perfect tube and bask in the 500 to 1500 hours of glorious listening as its character changes during use from perfect to something less.

[admin]

or keep up the search for the perfect tube and bask in the 500 to 1500 hours of glorious listening as its character changes during use from perfect to something less.

But boy is that period magical... and something that SS simply can't do.

[whnay1]

I know Jay Truitt and he is also a CJ dealer who has excellent tubes available including KT150's. You can email him at jay@2020evo.com

[AnotherJohnson]

or keep up the search for the perfect tube and bask in the 500 to 1500 hours of glorious listening as its character changes during use from perfect to something less.

But boy is that period magical... and something that SS simply can't do.

You should listen to some of the latest SS gear.

The Burmester stuff is excellent. I expect RJ would add Dar-T-Zeel to his list.

The ET7s2 has a retail of $13k last I knew. If you’re willing to spend $13k on a preamp (I’m now up to $19.5k), there are impressive options in both SS and valve gear.

William Z. Johnson said that you could make SS gear that was as good as the equivalent tube gear, but that it was harder to do and more expensive.

Once you’ve broken it in, it will probably sound great for a long time … but when it fails, it will be more trouble to sort it out, and because of solid state half lifes, you may have trouble getting it fixed. CJ and ARC are both weak supporters of their old SS efforts.

[AnotherJohnson]

That Levinson 5805 was killer SS too … before it died. Good that it died on warranty.

[whnay1]

The ET7S2 is an excellent preamp but it seems to eat tubes a little sooner than most….

[admin]

The ET7S2 is an excellent preamp but it seems to eat tubes a little sooner than most….

Luckily not a lot of tubes in there,... unlike my ART amp with 20!

[AnotherJohnson]

I never had trouble with ETx preamp tube life except for the original factory installed tubes. ET3 SE, ET7, second ET7, ET7s2 … all had good tube life after the original tube died prematurely.

Of course to me, a preamp 6922 dying means it started to exhibit audible hiss. Hiss bothers me. I’d rather have no hiss and a great overall sound than to live with hiss and a tube rollers nirvana overall sound.

[Big Dog RJ]

That's pretty much spot on! The very reason most of us are passionate about using tube gear. At least I am!

A very wise man once told me, that during the golden years it was all tube gear... such that nearly everything had tubes. From audio gear, radio gear, industrial & military gear and so on... Speaking of which, the Aussie Navy still uses tubes in certain applications. Then came the transistor and all of that changed.
However, when it comes to highend audio, tubes always hold a special touch to the sound, in the sense it sounds more real! More life like and full of soul! SS devices performed far better on specs, with greater accuracy, less distortion, no unwanted noise... no hiss!

As the SS decades passed though, quite a few audio brands, that primarily used tubes managed to refine their circuits to such an extent, they surpassed SS performance by a mile! Brands such as ARC, CJ, VTL, Manley Labs, Jadis, Absolare, Golden Tube, Destination Audio, Audio Note, Lampizator, McIntosh, and the formidable Aries Ceret, manufacture highend audio gear that is supreme! Most SS brands can only dream of this level of realism in sound.

Therefore, when you look at it from a holistic perspective, the thermionic valve hasn't changed much at all! People are still chasing the bliss from highly prized NOS tubes that were made in the 50's & 60's, some even rarer. The new production tubes, such as the KT series have come a long way and are getting better in every sense. So it's not only the tubes that have been evolving, rather it's the circuitry and advanced technologies and materials used in power supplies, power regulators and a host of other applications across the circuit board that's making tube gear highly sought after. They're far more reliable and the performance levels have improved dramatically!

There are still quite a number of other audio brands that use tubes, even PS Audio uses tubes in their BHK hybrid amps, when Paul M thought they'd never use tubes... but they did! It certainly is in the history of audio that tube gear is the real deal, if you're serious about high quality recorded music. There's no denying it.

Now, considering the vast majority of SS design and development, still to this day, hardly any of them can match what tubes can do. Only a handful get it right and they cost a bloody fortune; Dartzeel, CH Precision, Solution, Boulder, Dan D's designs, Pass Labs and others at this level, sound superb! The other category of amps aren't too shabb, they hold quite well against the top tier, in terms of real vfm: Parasound, Anthem, Bryston, McIntosh, NAD, Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Rega, Marantz, Michi, Krell, Cambridge Audio, and so on. With any of these brands, you can certainly enjoy the music, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

At the end of the day though, when it comes to finding the truth in music, feeling the soul of the performance, being fully engaged in the presentation, being totally immersed in the depth of a fine recording, there's nothing quite like tubes! I guess this is why Eve Anna Manley's motto is "tubes rule!" And that wise man was Lew Johnson btw, an absolute legend!

So if the OP really wants a very very quiet sounding ET7S2, like I said before, you'll have to search for that golden tube. It's out there and one or two good suppliers will have stock, it's just a matter of purchasing the right batch. Oh! Also don't forget to keep a few spares just in case... of hiss!
BTW, thanks for divulging more info on the hiss issue, definitely sounds like one of those 6922's a bit naughty.

Until then, enjoy those fine tunes!
RJ

[whnay1]

I went to CJ this morning and spoke to Jeff.

He said that customers need to use to Contact Us button on their web site and that all fields must be filled out. The reason is so he knows what country of origin and has full name, phone number, and email so they can get back to them. If it is a foreign inquiry he said he would direct that to the Country Distributor to handle for them per agreements in place.

For us in the US I am a dealer so I encourage my customers to use me to make sure problems are solved.

This may not be what everyone wants to hear but that is what I am being told by CJ.

[AnotherJohnson]

I went to CJ this morning and spoke to Jeff.

He said that customers need to use to Contact Us button on their web site and that all fields must be filled out. The reason is so he knows what country of origin and has full name, phone number, and email so they can get back to them. If it is a foreign inquiry he said he would direct that to the Country Distributor to handle for them per agreements in place.

For us in the US I am a dealer so I encourage my customers to use me to make sure problems are solved.

This may not be what everyone wants to hear but that is what I am being told by CJ.

I think this is a perfectly appropriate approach.

CJ’s greatest asset is JF. And he can’t clone himself, so he has to prioritize his efforts.

The importers do have a contractual obligation to provide service for the units they’ve imported and sold.

The vintage stuff is often a black hole with unknown history and parts are becoming scarce.

My heart goes out to JF. He is a genuinely bright and good hearted guy. But there’s only one of him.

What surprised me about this case was that it is related to a current model. But if JF had fielded this request, the advice would have been to buy a new tube. The last 6922 equivalents I bought from CJ were $120 each. Most customers who’ve bought second hand would balk at that price … even if it were the best advice.

I bought these as a good will gesture to support CJ, but I did not install them. I just grabbed three EH 6922s from Upscale off my shelf, and my problem was solved.

[admin]

I went to CJ this morning and spoke to Jeff.

He said that customers need to use to Contact Us button on their web site and that all fields must be filled out. The reason is so he knows what country of origin and has full name, phone number, and email so they can get back to them. If it is a foreign inquiry he said he would direct that to the Country Distributor to handle for them per agreements in place.

For us in the US I am a dealer so I encourage my customers to use me to make sure problems are solved.

This may not be what everyone wants to hear but that is what I am being told by CJ.

I think this is reasonable. I wouldn't even mind if they gave up the telephone contact and concentrated on simply getting back to people as fast as possible. By having all the contact info available, this most likely facilitates the support query.

On a perhaps unrelated note, I think CJ has updated their website as the design seems a little different on some of their pages so maybe there is shift to go more digital?

[whnay1]

They are doing well with the ART88 and ART108 rollouts. They really are great sounding combos.

Historically CJ’s bread and butter came from the mid priced equipment and the higher end was a smaller but important portion. This is flipped upside with the ART88/108’s leading the revenue. That speaks volumes to the designs.

With that it is mission critical they can keep up Customer Service.

[AnotherJohnson]

Even before the latest models, back in 2018 JF told me that the high end, ie the stuff most of us couldn’t afford, was the major share of their revenue stream.

All those 8s in the model numbers are lucky numbers in the far east. I’m sure it has tilted even further in favor of the top models since their introduction. I’m also sure that they are worth their price when compared to the current high end competition. There are amps and preamps out there nowadays that are far into 6 figures at retail. McIntosh, ARC, and CJ look and sound like very competitive options.

A lot of us here are looking for deals on units that are one or two generations behind. I would never have bought the LP275Ms at their retail price. Same is true for the REF 250SEs. But depreciation makes them “affordable” on the used market. And although they’re not SOTA, they are beautiful units that sound far better to my ears than the amps from around the turn of the century.

[AnotherJohnson]

On a perhaps unrelated note, I think CJ has updated their website as the design seems a little different on some of their pages so maybe there is shift to go more digital?

They have. It is more functional for iOS devices now, and there is information on more models. I think this is a good move.

People come here to ask about stuff that may fall between the cracks with an inquiry to CJ … especially if they’ve bought vintage gear second or third hand. It’s natural that they would like CJ to answer their inquiries, but as small as CJ is, they have to do triage to keep from being overwhelmed.

[admin]

The other big move they made is direct sales. The website seems to indicate that you can now buy products directly from CJ now. It's not as streamlined as a full "add to cart and pay" system but still a big move from dealer only purchases. You can also buy a CJ t-shirt directly from the site!

[AnotherJohnson]

The other big move they made is direct sales. The website seems to indicate that you can now buy products directly from CJ now. It's not as streamlined as a full "add to cart and pay" system but still a big move from dealer only purchases. You can also buy a CJ t-shirt directly from the site!

I’m not seeing the direct sales feature.

Short circuiting dealers isn’t usually a good idea … but Paul McGowan has made it work for PS Audio. If CJ wants to do this, they’re going to need to hire a full time customer service staff, and they are going to have to up their commitment to their phones.

Often when a manufacturer gives you a “buy” option, the page you’re directed to is a contact info page so that they can put a dealer in touch with you.

Could you link to this info on the CJ site. I’m curious.

[admin]

I’m not seeing the direct sales feature.

At the top of their site it says "All products are in stock and available for purchase. It just sounds right." And then in the contact page they have a "sales" selection. I though there were some people here on CJO that claimed they bought directly from CJ. CJ also lists the price of their items which they did not do before. I may be mistaken, but I presumed this meant you could order directly from CJ. Maybe this is not the case?

[AnotherJohnson]

I’m not seeing the direct sales feature.

At the top of their site it says "All products are in stock and available for purchase. It just sounds right." And then in the contact page they have a "sales" selection. I though there were some people here on CJO that claimed they bought directly from CJ. CJ also lists the price of their items which they did not do before. I may be mistaken, but I presumed this meant you could order directly from CJ. Maybe this is not the case?

The “All products…” line has been there most of last year. Prices have been given most of last year too.

You’re right about some being able to buy direct. It generally involves a generous trade.

I missed the sales selection, and I’ll check it out. But if there’s no cart to add to, it’s probably not too serious.

Paul McGowan cut his dealers out, but it seems to work for him. Maybe CJ is going in that direction, but he’s going to have to seriously improve on accessibility.

ARC has a dedicated customer service guy (Craig). So does Wilson (Jerron). Both are supported by other staff. People want that warm fuzzy feeling that there is someone to reach out to … especially on five figure purchases.