Went to buy Vandersteen 2C speakers and came home with a conrad-johnson Premier 11A.


I found a great deal on a pair of Vandersteen 2C speakers with Sound Anchor stands.  I didn’t need them, but they are identical to a pair that I had back in the 90s.  While I was there, the seller mentioned that he had an amp that he wanted to sell.  It was on a shelf in a basement collecting dust.  The price was right, so I bought it.  He said there are about 40 hours on the tubes.  Hopefully, the caps are ok.  I’m thinking I’ll try a Wiim Ultra streamer with volume control just to see if everything works.  I have old preamps by NAD and Rotel, but they aren't good ones.

Is there anything special that I should do before firing up the old girl?  This is my first tube amplifier. 

sls883

Your unit's manual (doesn't say operating watts in from wall)

The small Variac has a 5 amp fuse, the larger a 20 amp fuse.

https://conradjohnson.com/owners-manuals/prem11man.pdf

You might want to have spare fuses available:

"Internal Fuses The Premier Eleven power transformer is protected by a fuse on the ac power line (F1, located on a chassis mount fuseholder), and by seperate fuses (located on the small pc board near the back of the amplifier) on secondary windings for the filament supply (F2, - the fuse nearest the front of the chassis), the bias supply (F3) and low voltage supplies for the bias indicators (F4 and F5). A failure of any of these fuses is a symptom of a more serious problem, and a competent service technician should be consulted. In no event should fuses be replaced with a value or type different than that originally supplied.

 

The correct fuse values and types are: F1: 5 amp, slow blow If configured for 100 or 120V: 3 amp, slow blow if configured for 220 or 240V. F2: 4 amp, slow blow F3, F4, and F5: 1/4 amp, fast blow"

///////////////////////////////

here's a medium size/price 15 amp version:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ3TV6ZR/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

 

Congratulations on a great find. A friend of mine has the same 11A amp driving some Wilson Speakers. Once you verify the all is up and working fine, if you like what this amp does for your system, consider upgrading the Svetlana 6550 output tubes. My friend did with his and liked the improvement.

Congratulations on the find and on your patience. I would have had that puppy plugged in and turned on in minutes. If if worked I would enjoy it and then consider if sending it in to be recapped... if not, I would have sent it in for repair.... that is me. 

@elliottbnewcombjr Thank you for the information!

@alvinnir2 Thank you for the feedback.  I've never owned any tube gear with any of the three tube types used in this amp, so I don't know which tubes are good tubes.  My guess is that it has decent, but not great, tubes in it now.  I haven't been able to find a brand name on the four small tubes, but they appear to say Made in USA. 

@ghdprentice I'm hoping to have everything that I need before the end of the week.  I may wait until Saturday to flip the switch.  Maybe sooner if I can get one of my sons to help me get the speakers into the house.  Two people can carry them, but I'm not confident that my wife is up to the task.  I don't want to find out that she isn't.  lol.