Dear Denf,
I am the happy owner of a new cj ET250S.
It's being fed by an Arcam CDP via the new Rotel pre. It's driving a pair of B&W 802Ds. It replaced a pair of Rogue M-120 Magnum monoblocks, which I loved, but were just heating up my smallish listening room too much with a total of 14 tubes! I compared with Classe and Bryston. The cj came the closest to full tube sound, with only two little triodes. Pair that with the 250 wpc solid state output circuitry and zero-feedback design, and you get some harmonic richness in the midrange, good body to voices, double basses and drums -- yet excellent tight bass slam and dynamic power to spare. Nice ring and sustain to cymbals, too. You miss out only on the nth degree of bloom and full texture to every single instrument. And it runs MUCH cooler.
My only caveat is that between the cj and B&Ws, my system is extremely sensitive to everything upstream of it, including cables. Tube rolling too. I guess I am agreeing somewhat with the mixed review in HiFi+, which basically concluded that you need to do good system matching with it. But isn't that the case with all quality high end gear? :-)
Definitely worth your time to audition. Have fun.
I am the happy owner of a new cj ET250S.
It's being fed by an Arcam CDP via the new Rotel pre. It's driving a pair of B&W 802Ds. It replaced a pair of Rogue M-120 Magnum monoblocks, which I loved, but were just heating up my smallish listening room too much with a total of 14 tubes! I compared with Classe and Bryston. The cj came the closest to full tube sound, with only two little triodes. Pair that with the 250 wpc solid state output circuitry and zero-feedback design, and you get some harmonic richness in the midrange, good body to voices, double basses and drums -- yet excellent tight bass slam and dynamic power to spare. Nice ring and sustain to cymbals, too. You miss out only on the nth degree of bloom and full texture to every single instrument. And it runs MUCH cooler.
My only caveat is that between the cj and B&Ws, my system is extremely sensitive to everything upstream of it, including cables. Tube rolling too. I guess I am agreeing somewhat with the mixed review in HiFi+, which basically concluded that you need to do good system matching with it. But isn't that the case with all quality high end gear? :-)
Definitely worth your time to audition. Have fun.