Trying separates for the first time

It's a primarily analog system:

Speakers: Tekton M-Lore

Phono: Marantz TT-15s1

Phono Stage: Vincent PHO8 or Jolida JD9 MK2 (too much gain for my integrated, will see if it works with the CJ pre)

Digital: Marantz SA8004 (I only listen to CD/SACD from time to time an no computer audio)

Cabling: Mix of Silnote, JW Audio, Clear Day, Grover Huffman, Triode Wire Labs - mostly modest but good performing cables.

Scott

Hi Scott,

I see you're slipping a tube in the chain with the CJ Classic 2. I like the strategy of using a good tube preamp into a nice solid-state power amp. It's always worked well for me.

The CJ apprears to take a single 6922 tube and you can do some tube-rolling with that. The Siemens gold-pin E88CC tube is a good replacement and of course the trusty Amperex JAN 7308 gold-pin might be the best of all. Have fun!

Congrats Scott! Let us know how you like the sound.

What ever happened with the humming Coincident amp you had?

Scott,

I agree with Plato that pairing a good tube preamp with a solid-state amp is a good idea. Whenever I used this type of setup (VTL tube pre with an Aragon ss amp or the VTL with a class D amp)) it's sounded more dimensional and palpable, more like you're in the room with the musicians.

You may want to check to make sure the input impedance of the McCormack amp is about 10 times the output impedance of the CJ preamp; this is called impedance matching and is important for making sure the CJ's volume control use is optimized and for best performance.

Tim

You're right Noble100.
Only problem is a SS amp will pass DC from a blown tube and often take a speaker with it. Lost a nice pr of Rega ES-3's that way.