Back in the 80's and 90's Audio Research and Conrad Johnson


We're very competitive with each other. It seems like the main dealers at that time had one or the other. Nowadays you rarely ever see Conrad Johnson at a Brick and Mortar. ARC on the other hand is more popular than ever. Do you think this was mostly to do with marketing or Did ARC just come out with much better products than CJ?

taters

Showing 1 response by jazzonthehudson

I liked ARC (tube gear) more back then and have been using both for a while. CJ SS amps were great but not superb, except for e.g. the MF80 (a bit too warm but for those days great), MF2250A and esp the MF2500A. Never had the Premier 350 that has (still) quite a following.

Some how I leaned towards CJ in the 90s as I had a great relationship with their tech department as I modded every unit (Remember Ed, Joe?) from the PV3 to the PV12.

CJ’s modern tube amps have a.o. their proprietary Teflon caps which are leaner and provided more details, with the proper (NOS) tubes, it "Just sounds right"! My LP140m sound completely different than, e.g. the Premier 11A that I had.

I wonder what the future have in store for these companies..