Which is REALLY the best Conrad Johnson Preamp

I love my Conrad Johnson PV-12. It has a nice smooth response. I used to use a Conrad Johnson PF-2 but I slowly fell in love with the "tube sound." The great thing is that you can pick up a used PV-12 for under a $1k which is a great bargain.

I had a CT5 for a few years and never really got on with it. I found it too neutral and I sold it for what I paid for it. I just figured that I am not a big fan of the 6h30 valve.
Went down the Shindo road for a year. A month ago I had a chance to take home the ET3SE and I must say I have enjoyed my last month with this preamp more than any other preamp over the last few years. Maybe it's a synergy thing but I am looking to buy the high gain phono version of this pre.

I miss my ART2. I was an original owner of no. 116 and after a $10 power supply resistor failure on the left channel which canned the whole unit and that had the machine float back from Oz to the U.S. for repairs and back again, a well traveled unit anyway, costing me several hundred dollars and taking my wonder as to how they could allow one of only 250 units to have such a stupid, untested and/or un-QA'ed mistake in such a premium line drove me away. I had recent to this event a problem with most likely a $1 hardened steel pin on a Krell KPS-25s in the unit's stunning swinging door and 2 + 2 = 4 and the CJ just topped that bitter cake and it went. So did all my Krell.

However I find myself in this very thread due to the fact that I have been wandering about the 'net reading about the CJ ART pre-amp line and missing whole-heartedly that machine. It's somewhat a sick yearning.

It had a sound, a signature. Which to many Folk in our business is counter to requirements, but I loved that pre. exactly for that signature. And its looks and heft too. It was a strong contender and would have suited me for years to come. It had a power and a drive and an excitement like most American designs, a glorious edge. I would probably say the signature was a rawness to its sound with a type of Purple Haze. Listening to an electric guitar track always brought out the guitar amp. in the unit, very powerful presentation and very raw.

It could play anything very well, just as a by. Jazz was lovely.

It ran as the pre. to a Kondo Shinri for a little while before bye-byes. It was definitely a pre. that could have been worked and dabbled with to find a synergy. It believe it would have been a quick process to find that; and I do not like to tinker with my rigs too much once I find what I like.

Anyway, lossing the point here. The ART pre-amp. line-up from 1997/2001/2007 would get my vote.

Sickophant,

Enjoyed reading your post (all the while listening to my ART 2). Good description of them.

Sorry for your bad luck. I would be real disappointed if that had happened to me on such an expensive unit and I would have nowhere near the distance to ship that you did.

In case you ever think about getting another, my ART 2 has had zero problems in its circa 10 yrs. It is about 40 numbers beyond yours but I don't think that makes any difference. My ART 3 was one of the last 10 made and it too has not given me a single problem.

Things don't last forever and seeing as these are not under any warranty anymore, CJ was nice enough to send me a schematic so that a local tech (I have a very good one) could repair it if anything were to go "bump in the night". Hopefully you could do the same if you ever desire one again.

I ran the ACT2.2 for a couple of years. I enjoyed it immensely but it was always a little too cold/neutral for my tastes and a wee bit hot in the treble. Still a fabulous amp though and one you could live with for good if forced to. That said I have heard the wondeful majestic ART3 before and would have that in preference. More emotion, more music.

I now have the GAT though and would take that over both of the above. It was quite a large step up from the Act series 2, a step that I wasn't expecting tbh. In fact, I would say its a very different amplifier ... more of everything in the way you'd expect but a lot more natural sounding and with more warmth and lower mid/upper bass fullness but not in a manner that subtracts from dynamics, speed or accuracy. The coherence and unravelling ability it brought to the table was also pretty spellbinding, so much so that it made the ACT2.2 sound a bit muddled with certain allbums.