C-J Premier 350 amp!

Finally, after lusting over this amp for a couple years, I finally scored a "mint demo" C-J Premier 350 amp on A'gon! Unfortunately, it arrived "DOA" but Ed (head of C-J service, and the same caliber as Jim Powers), provided excellent support (turned out to be just a broken solder joint from shipping), and my Summits are now singing like never before! As good as my Belles 350A Ref was (and it's a superb amp), the C-J 350 has the additional power and finesse to drive the Summit panels to their ultimate extreme. The main improvement vs. the Belles are more realistic sparkling highs, and deeper/tighter bass (which I don't fully understand given the Summits powered woofers). The C-J mates beautifully with my Modwright pre, but I certainly wouldn't mind getting my hands on a C-J CT-5 someday! The 350 is an unwieldy 83 lbs, and took a bit of effort to "crowbar" into my (inexpensive) StudioTech rack. I'll eventually upgrade to a more robust rack down the road. My thanks to Cherian and Jeff (Dorgay) for bringing the virtues of the C-J 350 to my/our attention! It's a shame they are no longer in production, but well worth the scavenger hunt to find a good used one. I still need to re-dial in my Summits now, using the XTZ Room Analyzer, and will post some graphs and updated system pics ASAP.

sleepysurf said:

The 350 is an unwieldy 83 lbs........... I'll eventually upgrade to a more robust rack down the road.

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Those casters are the only weak part of the rack design from what I can tell. Casters on carpet, not much use are they?

I think with that amount of mass on it, it should at least be well seated.

Enjoy that amp, all 350 watts.:music:

If that's a tube amp, I think it needs more breathing room above.

Bernard said:

If that's a tube amp, I think it needs more breathing room above.

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Pure solid state, but a glowing review by stereophile.

EDIT: It was SoundStage magazine.
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/conradjohnson_premier350.htm

Congratulations on finding this great amp. Even though the Summits woofers are powered it still gets the low frequency information from the speaker level input of the CJ premier 350. This may be why the bass sounds better.

My Premier 350 only drives my Monolith woofers, some say over kill for what I’m using it for, still, no way I will ever give up this great amp. In my opinion this is one of a few all time great amps.

ENJOY!!!!

Given the tight space in my family/listening room, I needed the casters for wire access. It actually rolls surprisingly well on carpet. I'll eventually have my cabinet guy build a rack to match my custom "acoustic bookshelves".

The amp is SS, and runs surprisingly cool (even cooler than my Belles, which was only 250W). Living in FL, I ruled out a Class A SS, or large tube amp.

Here's a couple more reviews...
http://www.conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/review_premier350_j_dorgay_ta.pdf
http://www.conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/HiFi+PR350.pdf

Welcome to the club! I listened to a dozen amps before selecting this one. This was Jeff's reference all along. I think one has to spend near $20K to get similar performance.

kach22i said:

Those casters are the only weak part of the rack design from what I can tell. Casters on carpet, not much use are they?

I think with that amount of mass on it, it should at least be well seated.

Enjoy that amp, all 350 watts.:music:

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Agreed on the casters, kach22I. Sleepysurf, however, I think you will get more bang for your buck if before upgrading your rack you get some vibration control under the gear. The CJ responds well to stillpoints and to finite elemente cerapucks.

David Matz said:

Welcome to the club! I listened to a dozen amps before selecting this one. This was Jeff's reference all along. I think one has to spend near $20K to get similar performance.

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David Matz said:

... I think you will get more bang for your buck if before upgrading your rack you get some vibration control under the gear. The CJ responds well to stillpoints and to finite elemente cerapucks.

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Ahhh, yet another C-J 350 owner! What other gear are you running? I'd love to see pics of your setup, but couldn't find your full system listing.

Actually, with the heft of the amp, and other gear, plus the rack/casters being on carpet, I'm getting minimal resonance/vibrations! Playing Bela Fleck's Improv/Amazing Grace and Flight of the Cosmic Hippo at levels that rattle the windows and walls, the rack and components act like they are in the eye of the storm! The hollow rack supports are actually filled with expandable foam, which was a very cheap, but effective, tweak!

My primary system at the present is: Ayre c5, CJ act 2.2, CJ 350 ( I think I was the 2nd ML owner behind Jeff with this amp for MLs), Spires. I have it set up between 2 rooms. If my wife is not around, it's in a 25 x 40 room with approximately 16 bass traps. It's world class sound.

My system is ever evolving - every week, it seems. I am also busy and lazy. So I don't post pics.

Do try to audition the anti-vibration stuff. They are components, not tweaks, to my ears.

Congrats again.

Looks good. Forget about a CT-5 and grab a nice used ACT 2, series 1. They are floating around pretty reasonable, and after having both, there isn't enough diff between ser. 1 and ser. 2 to justify the cost.

When you go from the ModWright 9.0 to an ACT 2, the size of your soundstage will increase significantly in all three dimensions....

Definitely one of the best power amps ever made at any price.

I use a Conrad Johnson Act 2. It started life as a series 1 and then had it upgraded to a series 2. I was without the Preamp for 3 weeks so no way for me to do an A-B. I will assume the series 2 is better. I know the Act 2 did sound better that the Conrad Johnson Premier 16LS that I had. I did get a chance to A-B the 16 and the ACT 2. Hands down the Act 2 is better.

Congratulations! That is one nice amp!

David Matz said:

My primary system at the present is: Ayre c5, CJ act 2.2, CJ 350 ( I think I was the 2nd ML owner behind Jeff with this amp for MLs), Spires. I have it set up between 2 rooms. If my wife is not around, it's in a 25 x 40 room with approximately 16 bass traps. It's world class sound...

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Wow, sounds like a phenomenal room and setup! :drool:

Cherian said:

I use a Conrad Johnson Act 2. It started life as a series 1 and then had it upgraded to a series 2. I was without the Preamp for 3 weeks so no way for me to do an A-B. I will assume the series 2 is better. I know the Act 2 did sound better that the Conrad Johnson Premier 16LS that I had. I did get a chance to A-B the 16 and the ACT 2. Hands down the Act 2 is better.

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The series 2 is definitely a little better. Somewhat quieter. But used series 1 ACT 2's can be had for about $5000, while series 2's are still sticking close to ten grand.

If you grab a series 1 and put four NOS 6h30's inside, you'll be knocking at the door.

Just curious, how did you get yours upgraded? When the series 2 came out, they told us that the earlier ones could not be upgraded....

When I was on the CJ website I noted CJ would upgrade the ACT2 to ACT2S2. I did have to provide the serial number to see if it could be done. See the link below.

Jeff, what NOS 6h30's do you use??

http://conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/model_upgrades.html

Alan, now you have had a bit of time with the new CJ anything to add on the difference in the sound?

Brad225 said:

Alan, now you have had a bit of time with the new CJ anything to add on the difference in the sound?

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Haven't really had much time to listen, nor "dial in" the Summits yet, but the litmus test is that my wife keeps commenting on the improvement, even streaming (compressed) Pandora and RadioIO! I'll host an open house listening session ASAP (likely end of Nov, early Dec).

Alan, congrats on the new amp! :music:

Cherian said:

When I was on the CJ website I noted CJ would upgrade the ACT2 to ACT2S2. I did have to provide the serial number to see if it could be done. See the link below.

Jeff, what NOS 6h30's do you use??

http://conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/model_upgrades.html

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I got a set of four from Andy at Vintage Tube Services a couple years ago..

He's the one to call. No real markings on the tubes to speak of.