I had Sonic Frontier Power 3 and Line 3 upgraded to SE+ by Chris Johnson @PCX. Long parts list ... Audio Note copper and silver capacitors, rewired with silver wire ... Big improvement over stock plus more power. I was rolling GL KT88s.
It was eventually replaced with VAC and never looked back. No contest! If I can redo, I would sell the stock Sonic Frontiers and just buy VAC.
Since you're using a CJ pre with RCA outputs, I would demo CJ ART stereo or mono amps. I've always run XLR with VAC so cannot comment running RCA. My ARC REF250 amp has only XLR inputs so don't think ARC is a good match with CJ.
Atma-sphere are great amps too so try to demo if possible.
It was eventually replaced with VAC and never looked back. No contest! If I can redo, I would sell the stock Sonic Frontiers and just buy VAC.
Since you're using a CJ pre with RCA outputs, I would demo CJ ART stereo or mono amps. I've always run XLR with VAC so cannot comment running RCA. My ARC REF250 amp has only XLR inputs so don't think ARC is a good match with CJ.
Atma-sphere are great amps too so try to demo if possible.