CJ PV 11 observations (was FS: CJ PV 11)

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CJ PV 11 observations (was FS: CJ PV 11)

Postby efm2 » Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:44 pm

Hi.

Am selling for a friend. Send PM or sms at 0917-4302846
and I will send you his contact number.

Thanks
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:03 pm

reserve for me
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Postby efm2 » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:08 pm

That was fast!
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:44 pm

Image

just picked-up unit for testing. cosmetically in great shape (8/10); inside looks stock (unmolested) (7/10)

has built-in phonostage
Last edited by vintage_dog on Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Superman » Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:02 pm

congrats VD!
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:48 pm

i see a few resistors are holcos. not sure if this is stock. anyway all caps are stock except that i see one electrolytic cap (this unit is known not to have any electronic cap)

okay, now hooked up the preamp with a pair of eico monoblocks driving the dynaudio contour 1.8

sound: used rca 12au7 cleartops on phonostage. on CD, this has the classic lush, warm sound that CJ is known for, ideal for vocals. bass goes low enough. highs a bit rolled off. quite musical actually.

on phono, surprised it has a likewise musical presenattion, although not as warm as the CD. tubes used are mullard 12ax7 and sylvania 5751. a bit analytical sounding. extended highs, lighter bass. am using a clearaudio MM so not sure if this is reason. will try to tube-roll. gain is pretty high, in fact this plays louder than the CD

problem observed: faint crackling sound. not tube related. must be a drifting resistor or failing cap...owner confirms this problem has persisted since he got it (from another owner).
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:28 pm

okay, the crackling sound seems to have lessened after about 1 hour of use...but still there. right channel only.

hooked up the preamp to the mv60se...synergy? actually, i preferred the matching with the Eico monoblocks. sound with the all cj is a bit lame on bass and a tad slower...however, the pv11-hf35 provided great dynamics yet retaining the warmth of the cj...

hmmm, now, how do we eliminate that crackling sound??? i remember russel's pv11 had that same crackling sound when i tested it. is this a signature cj problem? .... :)
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:04 pm

now, let the tubes roll...

on signal path from the phono in of pv11 into mv60se...

mullard 12ax7
nos 5751
rca 12au7 cleartops
telefunken 12ax7
tungsol 6sn7

fully warmed up...

whoa! now that's music! vocals to die for. fair dynamics, a bit of roll-off on highs, nice sweet mids....now am singing along.... :-D

still that faint crackling sound on the right channel....damn!
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:06 pm

will do speaker rolling later tonight...

Contour 1.8
LS3/5A
Minima Amator
Concerto

will see how it goes....
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:09 pm

now playing drums...must be the mullards softening the attack. will try swapping tubes...want it tighter and quicker. could be the speakers too :-)

...aha, could be the sovtek 6550s. will see how the jj kt88s would handle that...

......................

who said these 1.8s didn't play big? at 11 oclock on the pv11, these speakers are ready to bring the house down...now playing gabrielle roth percussions. measured with a digital meter, sound energy at 1 meter is at 100-110db!! 95-100db at 5 meters away from the speakers. must be room acoustics/reflections at work...

awesome instruments now playing: pony drum, concert toms, rainstick, asheiko and berinbau!!!
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:49 pm

now playing america LP

now michael franks' object of desire LP

the phonostage section does not win in the soundstaging and tansparency category, but what it has is musicality that makes the listening experience quite enjoyable....
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:35 pm

above observation was with mullard 12ax7 at the phonostage. sound is sweet, too sweet on fact.

swapped the mullards with a pair of mazda long-plates. this is a livelier sounding tube, less sweet than mullards, but has better dynamics and greater detail it seems...hmmm. i like this tube. will try playing sax music later on...
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Postby vintage_dog » Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:46 pm

now playing john coltrane and johnny hartman. good staging and depth. vocals of johnny sounds good. sax didn't come as rounded as with mullards, but very nice indeed...

wait...john coltrane playing now. ohhh, that's great performance.... :)

strange, these mazda's were less impressive on the mv60se - they sounded slower (vs telefunken) which is opposite of how they sound on the pv11 (vs mullards). anyway, they are really nice...

john contrane again playing "my one and only love...."
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Postby vintage_dog » Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:09 am

winding down with cd of kennedy jenson...her song "the look of love" is so sweet and romantic. this is a superb preamp mated with the mv60se - very musical and enjoyable....

good night...este good morning!
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Postby amandarae » Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:55 am

Wow Boss VD! Di ka na ba natutulog?
Nice post though! Blow by blow description of the preamps "potential" as well as tube rolling tips. May I suggest the new EH 12AX7
Image

I read they are great in CJ preamps. As for the phono section, what tubes does it have? If 6C4, I would suggest the ff. in order of hierarchy.

Mullard M8080 - best of the best of the 6C4's that I tried. Nothing even close as far as the right tone, attack, slam, etc. I have tried the ff. of which, each pair I listened to for about two weeks or more.

Sylvania, Tungsol, RCA, Rogers, Raytheon, Motorola, and GE. Of these tubes, I will say the Raytheon and the GE comes second to the M8080, while the Sylvania and the RCA comes third. Forget about the Tungsol, the Rogers, and the Motorola cause they are just a waste of time.

Enjoy
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Postby marty_e » Tue Jun 28, 2005 9:01 am

Hi V-D interesting night you had there. Could that crackling sound be coming from dirty volume pots? I've had that experience before...
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Postby vintage_dog » Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:31 pm

probably not but one of the plate resistors on the 12au7 tube at the linestage. i see some resistors have been changed already to holcos. some holcos have reliability issues especially when used with high voltages.

decided to keep this preamp and do a restoration sometime soon - caps, resistors, etc...

overall impression: sweet and musical mids, less detailed and transparent than some modern preamps but responds well to tube rolling. slight roll-off on highs. good bass response when required. a definite keeper.
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Postby rtsyrtsy » Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:00 pm

VD,

I got a really old review of the PV 11 from I don't remember which mag...I'll dig it up and send to you.

Also, which output caps, what value, and what configuration does your PV11 have? If you remember, I had those (REL cap 'ba 'yun?) by-passed by Audio Notes which master Hypertriode has changed over the Auricaps (no more by-pass) and forgot values. It was never really clear to me what the original config was.

Regarding the "less detailed and transparent than modern pre-amps" issue, let me know the results in case you experiment with the volume pot. I had mine changed to DACT (don't remember if CT1 or CT2) and there was a night and day difference in terms of resolution.

Meron ka bang Caig Pro-gold (baka meron pa si Hyperion) and XLO TPC I found these to be good at opening up the sound in terms of detail retrieval.

Re: tube rolling, I don't have as rich a stash as yours but I echo your sentiments on the Mullards (CV4003 which I got on Kevin Deal's recommendation) though I actually liked it (as least better than the presentation resulting from using RCA Cleartops and the Siemens CCa). A pair of NOS Sylvanias didn't disappoint too.

How does that crackling sound on the right channel? How did it compare to the similar problem you encountered with my PV11? While I sent mine to master Rene for a fixer-upper before I left, I've not had sufficient time to really listen extensively.

Meron ka bang passive pre? It'd be really interesting for me to hear your thoughts on a passive-MV60SE-Sonus combo. Unless I get a sudden windfall and can afford a dedicated large room for audio, that's my likely next step. :D
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Postby vintage_dog » Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:03 pm

i finally decided to have this pre-amp restored: all resistors and caps in the linestage section were replaced with modern parts (kiwame, auricaps, silver mica, etc.) by the master hypertriode. this was also converted to 220v.

the annoying crackling sound is completely gone and this pre-amp is dead quiet!

thanks rene. am now using this pre-amp with a TT and the sound is very nice indeed. am keeping this...
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Postby vintage_dog » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:42 pm

woke-up this preamp from slumber last weekend and hooked up in my attic system:

thorens td160 super/denon dl103r->denon step-up->cj pv11->dynaco st70 sound valves->ls3/5a-ab1

nice, classic (lush yet detailed enough) sound...quite enjoyable. the denon step-up has finally broken-in now (after some 50hours) and it's a decent and cheap afternative to an ss mc stage.

this coming weekend, i'll hook-up the ai modulus1 instead of the pv11 and also try the modified hf87 amps... :wink:
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