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noise and cj premier 15

I have a Conrad-Johnson Premier 15 phono stage. I bought it used here on the 'Gon. I think it's more than two but less than three years old, although I don't have the precise manufactuering date. I find this phono stage to be fairly noisy - when I turn up the volume to moderate levels, there is a lot of background hiss. I am sure it's in the phono stage as no other source component does this in my system, and I replaced it temporarily with a Phonomena. The Phonomena and the P15 don't have the same gain, but they're fairly close-- I think one is set for 50dB gain, the other for 48dB.

Although the music is still quite fine, the extra noise really bugs me. What's wrong with it? I've never owned tubes before. Could I need to rebias the tubes? Is it just something that's going?
blw

Showing 1 response by cjlundgren43ed

cjlundgren43ed
3 posts
 
Hello Blw:
I purchased a used c-j premier 15 from my dealer about two years aso (at that time my unit was one year old). I experienced exactly the same noise issues that you describe. I finally replaced the stock tubes with NOS tubes from Upscale Audio (ask for Kevin). Once I installed these NOS tubes, problem solved - the noise was GONE. My unit is now very very quiet - still some residual very low level noise, but MUCH MUCH MUCH less noise than with the stock tubes installed.
Good luck with this unit.
Regards
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