Considering the price of new top quality tube preamps $1250 does not seem that high. Most commonly used tubes are available readily, did CJ use an exotic one in this design? They usually use mainline ones. The SUT question is hard to answer, many like to use them even if they have enough gain without them. Why not contact CJ and see what they say.
Will I need A moving coil set up device?
I am considering buying A Conrad johnson premier 3 preamp. Stereophile reviewed it using A moving coil device saying,(the premier three used with the HV-la has just enough gain so that you can use it with any moving coil cartage with A minimum of 2mv output.) I have A benz micro MC with 4mv output. I am also concerned with the asking price of $1250. and the availability of tubes.
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Stepup devices (transformers or head amps) are not usually used with 4mv cartridges, and if you were to use one you would have to choose it carefully to avoid the possibility of overloading it. Also, the Premier 3's 40db phono stage gain spec is very reasonable for a 4mv cartridge. Given that gain is a reasonable match to cartridge output, what determines the amount of hiss that you hear is not the amount of gain but the signal-to-noise (s/n) performance of the phono stage, whether it is internal to the preamp (as in this case), or external. The s/n spec of 72db ref. 10mv input that is given in the Stereophile review is meaningless, because "weighting" is not specified. But judging by the review comments re 2mv I suspect that the hiss levels you will hear might approach being objectionable, particularly if you are listening to wide dynamic range material such as a lot of classical music (in which case you would be setting the volume control much higher than for dynamically compressed material). That could probably be helped if you were able to obtain and substitute particularly low noise tubes in the preamp's phono stage. Alternatively, although it would involve significant expense, you could purchase an external phono stage that provides better signal-to-noise performance, and connect it into a line-level input. Re your last question, availability of the 12AX7, 5751, and 5965 is not a problem. The major online tube sellers should have all of them, at reasonable prices except perhaps for some of the most sought-after NOS versions. Regards, -- Al |
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