have u heard Conrad Johnson's tube CD player?

I owned one, sold it and bought another one because I missed it. It is not the most detailed CD player out there and it is not going to give you bass slam but it is very musical and is wonderful for classical music and female vocals. It has the ability to make even the worst sounding CDs listenable. If you buy one do some experimenting with NOS tubes. I am using Mullards and am very happy. This player is not for everyone but you do not see many used ones for sale so I can only assume that most people who have them are happy and don't want to part with them.

I'm a long-time CJ fan (currently, Premier l4 and Premier l2s), so was attracked to their two-unit CD player with a tubed DAC. Big mistake. The DAC was frequently in the shop and the sound was uninvolving. Also, the transport would not play CDRs or CDRWs and about 5% of my other CDs (which played fine in other machines). The real stunner was when it was simply blown away, sound-wise, by an unmodified Pioneer DV-4l4 DVD player that literally cost l/l0th as much as the CJ pair. The single-unit CJ player may be an improvement over my pair (I figure it almost has to be), but I can't help thinking you can do a bunch better. Cheers, Dave

I had a DA2b with a Pioneer Pd-65 Transport. I was rather disapointed with the sound. I tired the DAC with several other transports and still no luck the sound was quite vailed.

I've used a DA2b for a year or so and have found that the unit is very sensitive to the tubes it uses, but once dialed in will sound wonderful. Also, its very sensitive to jitter, which means that a good transport and digital cable is needed to get the most out of it. Certainly, this shouldn't be an issue with the DV2b, but its something to note about the outboard DAC.

As mentioned previously, the DAC is not the utmost in resolution or speed when compared with others*, but it has a beauty and richness through the midrange that is extraordinarily compelling. The sound will change somewhat depending on which tubes you use, but in all cases the mids remain exemplary. I've used a variety of tubes with the unit and have found a few types that complement it very well. The best so far are NOS Mullards (the type that actually says Mullard on the tube, not the generic British tubes that look similar and are generally regarded as Mullards) and NOS Hitachi. The Mullards produce a soundstage that is incomparable in my system, with a sweetness through the midrange that is simply beautiful. The Hitachi’s are stronger on the top end and much tighter on the bottom, and produce a far more “real” sound than I’ve experienced with this, or any other DAC. Over the past 6 months or so, these have become my tubes of choice for this unit. The newer, unlabelled variety of Mullards are too laid back through the mids for my tastes, and produce a relatively small soundstage. The original GE tubes (which is what the unit was designed for) provide a pleasant sound, but are unremarkable overall and make the unit seem a little lifeless.

The key difference between the CJ DAC and others I’ve tried is the realism of the sound it creates, and its ability to produce and seemingly boundless soundstage when called for. Nearly every other DAC was faster and more accurate, but the emotional impact that the CJ DAC produced with some of my more dramatic classical pieces was never matched by the others. For smaller pieces, however, its lack of speed and accuracy may make it sound a little veiled as pointed out previously.

Anyway, in my environment the upsides outweigh the down, and for that reason I still use it in my system.

* Note that my experience with DAC’s has been limited to low/moderately priced units (<$700). Keep this in mind when evaluating my comparisons.

Ken

I was interested in this player as well since I have a CJ system. The folks as CJ actually suggested that I look at something else. DACs and such have improved since and they said it was not bad but not their "best" work. They mentioned that McCormick (owned by CJ) will be introducting a combination player soon that sound nice.