The Road Less Travelled (for multichannel that is)

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edmiston

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As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am an old two channel stat guy that on the third try (won't bore you with the details) has fallen for multichannel in a big way. I picked up another Arcam AVR 350 receiver to dip my toe back in, and a new batch of SACDs later, I was hooked. Now the question begged, which direction for an ML multichannel system, with audio the priority. I considered all the usual suspects for av processors, and did the usual nerdy lurking on the AVS forums. A few nagging questions kept nibbling away at me though. Why did I want to duplicate all the digital processing in my universal player in my SSP? Do I really need to reprocess the video signal there? Why are they all so butt ugly with 5000 buttons and all the logos on the front? It seemed to me that the big audiophile companies making them wanted lots and lots of dough, the small audiophile companies (like Cary) that made them produced buggy products that even they didn't understand, and the truly bang for the buck products (like Onkyo/Integra) had lousy customer service if you had a problem.
All of this led me to consider that rare species, the multichannel analogue preamp. The ARC is a bit rich for me new and never shows up on the 'gon. The McCormack is dc'd but plentiful. The Parasound has a phono stage I don't need, and okay, I'll admit it - when I move to the UK I have this hankering to take good old American built hifi with me. I have been admiring the Conrad Johnson Met-1 six channel tube hybrid preamp and matching Met-150 five channel hybrid amp since their introduction, but their price, $8500 for each piece, was a bit rich for me. Now CJ was convinced that this was the right way to do multichannel, but the market disagreed, and the products bombed. CJ sold all their remaining stock to Spearit Sound in Boston, who was blowing them out for half price. Now we are getting closer, but ever the bargain shopper, I figured that if they were asking half price, there might be some wiggle room there. After seeing them posted by SS several times on the 'gon, I offered them $6k for a pair (both amp and preamp) and they jumped on it.
Several days later, they arrived. These are BEAUTIFUL pieces. Just my cup of tea - lovely champagne finish, minimal knobs and geegaws, the amp hefty but not requiring a forklift, the redeeming glow of tubes....ahh yes. Now to fire them up. Initially used in two channel with my Summits, and the sound was.......dreadful..flat, two dimensional, worse than the Arcam (which is very good, but...) I couldn't believe it. Out went the MLs, in went my Bohlender-Graebener Z-92 ribbon hybrids...same result. I didn't know whether to be suicidal or elated, I mean if I sent these back and kept the Arcam, think of all the dough I would save. Several days went by and I kept comparing, thinking that I must be in the twilight zone. Then on day four, when I was bringing out the CJ boxes and steeling myself to call Spearit Sound and tell them I wanted to return the units, suddenly the Great Transformation occurred. Now I am not usually a great believer in audiophile voodoo, but I swear there was a night and day change when suddenly everything gelled. I will spare you all the audio babble, but suffice it to say that I now find this duo to be everything I was looking for - true to the music and absolutely thrilling. Tonality, detail, it's all there and I am done. The amp produces 250w/ch x 5 into four ohms, and it never breaks a sweat with the Summits. I am picking up a pair of Spires and a Stage this weekend, and count me as one happy camper.
Now what do I do with that HDMI cable?

Cheers,

Mark
 
Sounds like in "break in" time for the CJ hardware.

GG

PS: From my personal perspective and numerous reviews substantiated by user experience, CJ is one of the benchmark manufacturers in high end audio. Mark's experience also validates the position (at least for me) that components need to be played for a period of time before they sound their best. It's not vodoo.

I don't quite understand his comments about Cary.

IMHO, Cary is much like CJ within the context of a small company producing outstanding, musical products from a price / point standpoint.
 
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Sorry, I was trying to keep an already long post from being longer...

My comments about the Cary 11A refer to the many pages of posts on the AVS forums by very frustrated users that imply that the unit is full of bugs and not ready for prime time. It seems to be flummoxing the manufacturer as well as the consumers....

The CJ gear, at around twenty hours of listening, went from closed in, flat and uninvolving, to open, detailed and glorious. I have heard some units sound better as they break in, but this was by far the most dramatic change I have heard.

As an addendum, the guy I was going to buy my Spires and Stage from agreed on a price and agreed to meet me in Moab (he is from Salt Lake City). First he demanded a cashier's check for payment. Then he called back to say that I had to fax his banker the check to make sure it wasn't fake. Then he called again to say I needed to give him a week to verify the check. At this point I got cash to pay him. Then he called to say he had to work that weekend but his wife would bring the speakers. Next call, he wasn't happy to send his wife, could we reschedule for the following weekend. Called the following Tuesday to say he lost his job and would be keeping the speakers rather than getting CLXs as he had planned. Now he has added photos to his Audiogon add and removed the "sale pending" tag. Hmmmmm.

So I bought a pair of Script i's to use as surrounds, and will have to decide whether to keep the Summits or go for the new generation. It's tough when you are eight hours from a dealer!
 

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