I took the Krell 500i out of my main system with it's 250 wpc of seemingly endless power and all the strengths that you get with Krell and replaced it with Conrad Johnson separates, the PV14 preamp and MV60 power amp with a power rating of 55 wpc. We tend to use adjectives to try and convey what we experience, like "organic" was thrown around by Audio Note users and reviewers and I could only imagine what it meant until I experienced it and "organic" seemed to describe it very well, although I had a pretty good idea what people were trying to say by "musical" I hadn't actually experienced the definitive expression until I put the Conrad Johnson in my system. If you are familiar with what micro and macro dynamics are, this is what the CJ does better than any equipment I have ever heard. The CJ gear I have is definitely not "classic" tube sounding, nor will I belittle it by saying it sounds like solid state. It cannot reach down to those lower bass octaves like my Krell could but the CJ doesn't sound rolled off. I have a hand full of CD's that I know went extremely low and in comparison on the 2 systems I could tell. Actually, I was very impressed that the CJ doesn't sound rolled off at either end of the frequency response. Cymbals exhibit very good hang time and natural decay. The CJ is able to grab the bass line and deliver it without flab or confusion. The CJ breathes emotion or soul into the performance and I found that a big positive. The CJ is able to bring out rhythyms and minor accompaniment I hadn't noticed before, it makes it more part of the performance. Where the Krell seemed to take all the detail and convey everything across the soundstage evenly, the CJ puts the sounds in place, leaving background instruments in the background or I guess a better way to say it is the CJ soundstage has great depth. "Depth" is another word I only guessed at until hearing the CJ. On the soundtrack of The Choir the depth and spacial cues were amazing, it was like sitting in front of a large portal to the real performance. Another amazing thing the CJ does, and this is part of the macro/micro thing, it's able to give you a sense of distinct and separate voices in choir or background singers, you are able to get a since of separate horns or variations between horns while listening to entire horn sections.

I found the Conrad Johnson gear amazing and an excellent value. I hate to use value, it sometimes incenuates cheap but I mean it in the most positive way because the Conrad Johnson is some of the most amazing gear I've heard at any price.

It was interesting that when I added the CJ to my signature it changed every signature on previous posts. I'm not sure I like that but maybe it was not meant for us to list equipment there.