Audible Illusions vs CJ preamps: sonic difference?

The M3 is a fine preamp. I know it's sound well and I have used two different AI preamps over the years. My comments are not meant to suggest that the preamp is anything but very good; it obviously is, given it's success. But, to answer the OP's question, I will try to offer some impressions of it's sound compared to the CJ sound, and here is why it gets tricky to describe sound in a way that is meaningful to another listener.

I will preface my description by simply saying that, to me, a PV11 or PV12 sounds more like what live music sounds like than the AI A3. The CJ sound is often described as "dark"; whatever that is. I disagree. If anything, I find the AI sound darker. With the CJ's, individual images have more natural color ("darker?") vs. what I hear as absence of natural color from the AI. To my ears, the CJ has a more refined sound. I hear more grain in the AI sound. The AI presents larger images with greater stability (reach out and touch). But, the CJ's give superior rendition of dimensionality with less grunge in the empty spaces. I think the AI's images are too large, and the bass is a little too thick, and then there is that somewhat "bleached out" tonal quality; while the CJ's may sound a little too "golden" for some. If I had to choose, I would choose a little too much color over NO color. Music has A LOT of natural color. Lastly, I find the AI sound dynamically polite compared to the CJ's naturally lively quality. The AI is quieter with less background noise.

Good luck.

Night and Day difference... The CJ is like driving in the rain at night, where as the Audible Illusions is like a driving a convertible on a sunny day.

I owned the CJ Premier 14 for severial years and replaced it with the modulus 3. When I upgraded to the 3A I was able to comparing it directly to the CJ 17 LS, and for my taste the AI won hands down.

IMHO the CJ's while very nice, tend to have a very dark tube sound, where as the AI is more honest to the source. The CJ also sounds contested in my opinion. FWIW, I'm the happy owner of the new AI 3B which feeds a nice set of EL34 amps....

Good luck.
Tony

I want to attempt a description of the "dark" sound. The sound is slightly rolled off in the upper registers and the all round treble energy reduced. If you have ever heard what a real British Mullard 12AX7 does to the sonics you get a decent idea of what dark is . In addition it is a full sound but not airy sound. That sound is typical of many older tube amp designs but are not what modern tube designs offer. So depending on your age you might conger up your Fathers 1960 EL-84 amp, if you have ever heard one you would have a good idea of what people are saying, when they say dark. Well I tried!

@Mechans

Thank you for your excellent description of "dark". Being an old guy I was too lazy to provide a thoughtful discription. And you made me chuckle... I'm still using 30+ year old mono amps with NOS Mullard el34 (xf2's).

Tony

Its been awhile since I listened to a CJ Pre or AI-m3a. Many years ago a friend of mine and I brought his VAC amp
and CJ Pre to Advanced Audio on a Sunday afternoon in Tacoma and listened to the AI m3a with an Ayre amp and a Wadia CD player through a large pair of Genesis loudspeakers. We never switched the amps, just the Pre-amps. No contest. The AI m3a was breathtaking. Through the m3a, Aaron Neville's voice floated out of those speakers with such majestic elegant grace and 3D imaging that we just sat their hypnotized. The only negative with AI m3a is they are known to burn up tubes in a short span of time. If you were to pick up a used AI m3a I would highly recommend buying Psvane tubes since they have a very long burn life due to their heavy filaments and thick glass envelopes and the best place to buy the tubes from is Grant Fidelity who is the premier vendor for North America. Grant Fidelity has the tubes shipped directly from the Psvane warehouse in China to your home so they arrive very qucikly by air so you don't have to go through a long waiting period with other vendors who receive the tubes at their business location first in the States then to your home.