I had a CJ ET-3SE which was nice but always seemed restrained. I ended up w/a Luxman CL38U-SE which totally blew away the CJ. It has balance and tone controls plus a mono switch. The phono really surprised me. It has 4 SUT's 2 for MC high and 2 for MC low. The look is very similar to the Marantz 7C. Price was $5995. They only made 100 of these as a special 90th Anniversary run. By the way I also demoed a 10K VAC and a ET5 neither one could compare to this preamp.
Simaudio P5 or Conrad Johnson ET5
I currently have the CJ 17LS and like it a lot but I do feel like it may be the bottle neck in my system. Therefore I am looking to replace with something that can provide better detail and dynamic. The ET5 seems like a natural candidate but its weakness is that it does not offer balance connection which in itself could be the bottleneck. The P5 is a two chassis design and has the sound somewhere between tube and solid state.
The P5 used would be around 2K and the ET5 would probably around 4K or a bit less if I am lucky.
My current amp is Simaudio Moon W3. The DAC is Ayre QB-9 DSD.
What are some of the alternatives with about the same price?
The P5 used would be around 2K and the ET5 would probably around 4K or a bit less if I am lucky.
My current amp is Simaudio Moon W3. The DAC is Ayre QB-9 DSD.
What are some of the alternatives with about the same price?
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