CJ Supplied tubes (Stock)

[jimbones]

Hi All

Does anyone know what manufacturer tube was used by CJ when the ET5 comes from the factory? Also if you know what came with the premier 12 I'd love to know what the stock tubes were. Thanks

[Big Dog RJ]

When I took delivery of the ET5, just after the ACT2 series 1, it came fitted with one Genalex Gold Lion 6922. That was recommended by JF himself and it came shipped with the unit along with one spare. Thought that was a nice touch from CJ.

Re. To Prem12's, this is going quite a while back .. as far as I recall, the Output tubes were 6550C type from SED (Svetlana electron devices) made in Russia. The input and driver / phase inverter tubes were all GE standard type nothing fancy. Exact same tube make came supplied on both the Prem11A and Prem8A's. These brands were recommended by Lew J at the time.

Hope that helps,
Cheers, RJ

[jimbones]

Big Dog,

I just replaced the Gold Lion with a NIS Siemens, Oh man what an improvement. On my Power amp I upgraded the 5751 to Raytheons. Those 2 changes were probably the biggest improvement to my system since I got the CJ's.

[Big Dog RJ]

Ah, ok that's good to know.

As I said this is going quite a while back... so was recommended by LJ at the time. If those makes that you've tried seem to work well then just leave it in there. Don't go changing too often though, even if there's an improvement or not, sometimes in the long run it can have adverse affects.

I remember when in had the ACT2 series 1 & 2, the standard supplied at the time were the Sovteks 6N30Pi. After using these successfully in both versions of the ACT2, although there was an annoying constant hiss... the preamp mostly behaved well. After the ACT2 preamps were sold and when I finally settled on the CT5, I used the same Sovteks but they didn't last too long, noise issues started happening after 3 months. Tried a few other variants from EH (electro harmonix) decent enough but not quite Sovtek finesse. So after a 4 months trial and error, finally got hold of the same Sovtek make but with the gold pins. Whether or not this is a big deal, I really don't know but they've lasted quite a while now and still going strong. So I've just left them in there! I'm not going to tube roll again, it's too costly, we pay double or sometimes 3x the price down unda, so why bother when it's sounding tops! Just enjoy the music.

As per the GGL's are concerned, I've had multiple failures from a bad batch I guess. I've got three gold pin versions and two normal silver pin versions from EH, so in total 5 6922's sitting on top of the TT to scare the kitties away! Ha, that seems to work. As for now, in each of my monoblocks, I'm using the GGL 6922's that were supplied by CJ, and so far performing tops! So, again I'll just leave it in there, after all it works fine.

Over the decades what I've learned is that tube rolling is a funny business. I guess the suppliers win when we get carried away by differences in sound thinking that's the holy grail. I sincerely believe the holy grail to tubes are the ones that are recommended for your particular gear and the ones that work perfectly for a length of time. Apart from that, I would rather just enjoy the music.
Same thing goes with fuses and other internal gismos... if things fitted by the factory are working perfectly then why change? For what purpose?

I would use my hard earned money on others aspects, such as LP's or SACD's /CDs, and high quality recordings. Those make a much bigger difference!
Cheers, RJ

[Truth71]

As I recall the premier 11 a was originally supplied with GE6550 tubes. After they became unavailable, Svetlana, 6550 were used, but only the “winged C” variety. Sadly, that factory went off-line eventually as well. The “regular“ Svetlana tubes don’t sound the same. For current production tubes, the “Tung-Sol” 6550 is generally recommended.

I think this chronology may also have been the case for the premier 12.

[Joe Appierto]

Yes, the Premier 11 pictured in Wes Phillips' October 2, 1994 Stereophile review of the Premier Eleven depicts GE 6550A output tubes.

https://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweram ... index.html

As supplies of the GE 6550A became scarce, CJ used SED 6550C and once those were gone they recommended the New Sensor Reissue Tung-Sol 6550. I believe the New Sensor Gold Lion KT-120 are the current favorites of the vast majority of the CJO forum members.

[jimbones]

I should have clarified that I was concerned mostly with the input tubes 6FQ7 and 5752. Apologies

[Joe Appierto]

The small signal tubes on the 11 were also originally GE.