jafant...
I played the CJ MF200 for a few hours yesterday and I can say that it's a pretty impressive amp for its age. CJ doesn't offer a power rating into a 4 ohm load like my Thiels, but with 200 watts into 8 ohms I will assume I won't be stressing either.
Anyway, I'm currently using an ARC LS 3 solid state preamp, and it may be only my aural imagination but I am not getting any of that "warm" CJ sound - which is a positive. (Not that the warmth of CJ equipment ever bothered me.) I thinks its more their preamplifiers that impart that trait in many user's opinions. (I've had other CJ amps and preamps as well.)
I also have a Classe preamp...model number eludes me right now, and THAT imparted warmth. I'll be hooking that up and comparing sometime this weekend.
Overall the CJ and the ARC preamp are a good match. I heard excellent low end response from my Thiels at a very moderate listening level. I sit approximately 10 feet away from my speakers so that's a good thing. I use Ginger Baker's "Cyril Davies" cut off of his most recent release "Why?" as a canary-in-a-goldmine reference since it has dynamics all over the place. I then use some New Orleans jazz - if an amp can render this and that well its a keeper!
PS: I got the amp for under $700...
I played the CJ MF200 for a few hours yesterday and I can say that it's a pretty impressive amp for its age. CJ doesn't offer a power rating into a 4 ohm load like my Thiels, but with 200 watts into 8 ohms I will assume I won't be stressing either.
Anyway, I'm currently using an ARC LS 3 solid state preamp, and it may be only my aural imagination but I am not getting any of that "warm" CJ sound - which is a positive. (Not that the warmth of CJ equipment ever bothered me.) I thinks its more their preamplifiers that impart that trait in many user's opinions. (I've had other CJ amps and preamps as well.)
I also have a Classe preamp...model number eludes me right now, and THAT imparted warmth. I'll be hooking that up and comparing sometime this weekend.
Overall the CJ and the ARC preamp are a good match. I heard excellent low end response from my Thiels at a very moderate listening level. I sit approximately 10 feet away from my speakers so that's a good thing. I use Ginger Baker's "Cyril Davies" cut off of his most recent release "Why?" as a canary-in-a-goldmine reference since it has dynamics all over the place. I then use some New Orleans jazz - if an amp can render this and that well its a keeper!
PS: I got the amp for under $700...