Conrad Johnson Owners.com

Sure, of course,
but I believe that in case of failure they can be repaired.
I think they belong to the best period


.... But the PV9/9A was never considered high end, even when it was new.


Hmm... well, when I bought my PV9 back in '89, or so, it was High End.

BTW< i've had mine looked ...

Here a picture of one of my "small" setups.... that's the ET3SE driving a DIY F4 and a DIY Pass Sony VFET with no problems at all.. The black Parasound ZAmp is being used to drive a pair of small "subwoofers"

The ET3SE/F4 combo is good for just under 40wpc... into Metronome speakers with a 5 ...

Well, I don't have any "Pass amps"... I'm just sitting on a bunch of clones and other designs from Pass.

Yes, the CJ preamps drive all of those amps. Note that the CJ preamps with 20 Vrms output can drive the F4, which is not really an amp but a current buffer. I have a PV9 and ET3SE, both with the ...

Your X150.8 is way overkill for those speakers, huh? At a rated 99db/watt all you'll ever need is 10 watts maximum... unless you play Heavy Metal.

Besides, it's class AB.

Give the First Watt units a try... can't you get them over at Reno HiFi?

I think the best amp for your system would be a First ...

I upgraded my PV9 a few years ago with the Teflon caps... including the phono stage.

I also upgraded my ET3 to ET3SE status.

Run, don't walk.

It'll take about 400 hours to break in, so it's a good time to also swap the tubes.

The difference is not subtle. It does bring the preamp into the modern ...

A PV10 for $1300 is way OVERPRiCED. The seller is fishing for fools.

I got the PV9, with phono stage, which is a much better preamp. At the time, the pV9 was 3200 bucks. Over the years i've added the full Teflon cap job and complete restoration from the Factory ( by Ed himself ). The diodes and ...

Thanks guys.... I'll write this down somewhere.

Yes, it seems like my memory is not shot yet! ;-)

Combined with a DIY First Watt F4, ( unity gain ) the ET3E and PV9 will put out a lot of power! At full output into 98 ohms, the combination could put out 50w, but the F4 is current limited... so with ...

Hmm... no, not the fixed gain phono stage. That's the gain from the cartridge level to the line level.

I'm asking about the gain of the line stage. The volume operates on a resistor ladder. I think each "step" is like 0.7db, or something like that.

There are 99 steps, I think. Unity gain is around ...

I know I asked this before, and someone answered it, but I can't find it.

What are the gain settings for the ET3SE?

I think it's unity around 64 or something like that?

I'm having some issues using a somewhat picky SIT amp with 28db of gain... it has smoked twice already (*)... so I need to ...

To be honest.. I'm not sold on current ARC gear at all. They've gone too High End... I prefer the old D70/D125 and VT50/100/200 sound... and the Classic 30/60. The amps were simpler, less money spent on cosmetics, more money spent on the stuff inside.

Although. the D70-II is, IMHO, still the best ...

For many years, I've had an ARC D70-II and a CJ PV9. For about 20 years they were tied together. At some point I updated the PV9 with teflon caps, while the D70 was on a 3-4 year diet of Sovtek/Svetlana 6500 and ancillary. The PV9 also got Russkie tubes, but I sourced those from the factory.

The ...

Try the old Aleph 2 amps... excellent over the Maggie 1.7s.

However, for the Maggies 3s and above you need more power.... Aleph 1.2s if you can find them.

As I recall, the XA amps go into push/pull?

What was the preamp in that system?

Solid state can be good, but it has to be class A and then the components need to have been chosen.... I find tubes and FETs go hand in hand very nicely.

If you can find one, try the First Watt SIT-1, 2 or 3.. Solid state triode sound. You will need 90+ db/w ...

https://www.conradjohnsonowners.com/viewtopic.php?t=128

Most likely, power supply?

38

Hello All,

My System consists of an ET5 and pair of P12's. Holo Spring 3 DAC and my own DIY 12/3 speakers. I want to upgrade my interconnects. I currently have VanDen Hul from the 1980's. Need recommendations for a RCA budget $650 (prefer used) 1.5m. This will go between DAC and Pre. Thanks ...

The "premade boards like the NC122MP" are eval boards.... so that's how they work. Fun stuff to play with.

BTW, I literally smoked the right channel of my super duper macho XA-252 SIT ( a clone version of the Pass Labs XA25 with SIT ). The builder burnt it in for two weeks, but when I got it, I put ...

This "tube" is NOT a tube... it's a Class D device using a MOSFET and a solid state filter... somehow housed into a tube like enclosure.

I happen to have an NCore eval board, NC122MP OEM, which puts out 125 (4 ohms) wpc and with the case runs about 500 bucks.... there's also the NC250MP OEM which ...

@paolo.... if you plan on keeping the ET3, i STRONGLY recommend the SE upgrade.

Besides, you get to have fun with Jasmine.

What do you mean preamp at "1 or 2"...

You mean the ET3SE display at "1" or "2"?

The gain of the Premier 11 is 25.7 db, that's almost a 20 time gain on input to output.

The gain of the ET3SE line stage is 25db as well.... so you got a maximum system gain of 400x (in volts) from source input to ...