Absolute Phase questions with a Conrad Johnson PV10BL

[Kaboom]

So i borrowed a second-hand CJ PV10 from my dealer, and the webpage states that it is phase inverting.
I, however, do not know if the Adcom GFA5500 its driving is phase correct or phase inverting.
any insight?
also, does absolute phase cause any difference in sound? any of you actually heard it? and logical explanation behind it?
cheers!

[Mr Peabody]

The C-J is a very good preamp. I forget what the other phase is called but "absolute phase" is when on the first note your woofers BOTH move inward opposed to outward. The other phase is like when your positive is hooked to negative and one woofer moves in while the other moves out which cancels each other out and you get a loss of bass response. Absolute phase is nothing to worry about. If you can hear the difference when your system is out of absolute phase it's like the soundstage is diffused or less focused. Some people actually like it because the sound stage also seems larger. Many albums can very on absolute phase and I've even been told that tracks on the same album can vary in absolute phase. If you have another component that is phase inverting they two will cancel each other out. If not, you can correct the phase by hooking BOTH positive speaker leads to negative or basically reversing both speaker leads from what they were. You might want to try that just to see if you hear a difference. You may have noticed at one point some CD players and DAC's included a phase switch but that feature seems to have faded away.

How did you like the C-J? Not meaning to influence your decision but I love my C-J gear and find it sounds way better than it's price would lead you to believe.

If you decide to get a C-J preamp you can probably find a tube CD player or DAC that is phase inverting to balance things out.

[Kaboom]

mmmkay sounds like i'll be swapping the leads a couple of times and seeing which i like better.
So far i'm loving the PV10BL coupled with an Adcom 5500 power amp. Sure seems to beat the hell out of the Cambridge Audio 540A i was using as a preamp before, specially in the midrange and trebble.
I do find that although the bass is WAY tighter, there's less of it. I actually like this since the cambridge made the bass boom in my relatively small room. I also SEEM (note SEEM) to notice that the bass improves noticeable after the CJ has been on for an hour or so... self-delusion?
I haven't done the CRITICAL listening yet since I got it on thursday and this house has been MAYHEM (as usual) ever since. The real deal starts this afternoon.
Depending on what i conclude this afternoon (and based on the preliminary listening tests i have a pretty clear idea of what its gonna be) at 900€ this is a very hard deal to pass on. I was wondering how it would compare to a Musical Fidelity A3.2CR or the new 3.5 when it comes out, but i don't have the opportunity to listen to those.
cheers!

[Mr Peabody]

No one around here carries MF. The only impression I have of them is my X-can headphone amp. But it's hard to imagine a better preamp and especially at that price.

I just got my C-J pre and power amp last December so I haven't done any mix matching of any components. The C-J combo definitely did not go as low as my Krell. It would be interesting to hear the PV10 and 5500 together. While listening you should notice your familiar recordings having more detail, background singer voices being more separate, being able to hear horns more distinctly from one another when sounding together and I'd suspect a sweeter high end.

Hope to hear from you after you've done sufficient listening.

[Kaboom]

Ok, lots of listening done this afternoon, and here is what i have concluded:
it MIGHT stay.
Its the heck of a lot more musical than the Cambridge. The soundstaging just can't be compared. It has a weight and an "air" around the instruments, as well as a presentation that the cambridge completely lacks. The lack of bass i heard the other day has been completely elliminated, i gather it was due to the fact that i hadnt left it to warm long enough.
It is fairly detailed, but not excessively so. its a more musical than analytical preamp.
BUT it has two huge drawbacks. First and most importantly, the channel balance dissappears at the lower volume levels. its like muting the left channel. considering that i'll have to use this system at very low levels a lot of the time, this constitutes quite a big problem. Solutions?
And secondly, it lacks a remote control. While not a huge problem, it certainly is quite a nag.
so does it stay or does it go? i can't quite tell yet. I'll have to see a bit more of it to justify spending a grand on it.
Cheers!

[Mr Peabody]

You might email C-J about the volume balance, that doesn't seem right. When the channel drops out does the balance control bring it back? Not having a remote would be a deal killer for me. When I was looking for tube gear I had considered the Manely Shrimp until I found it didn't have a remote then I scratched it off the list. C-J is certainly musical and on the upside you got to hear what they were like. Maybe you can find a newer model on Audiogon for around the same price. A demo PV14LS2, current model, would cost $1,749.00 (msrp $2,495.00) at www.spearitsound.com. That would include a warranty and some try out time. Although the try out time is usually short of 30 days but the guys are great to work with. The PV14 has a remote, processor bypass loop for HT integration and plenty of inputs. Knowing C-J usually don't change models unless they have something more to offer, I'd be willing to bet the PV14 is a better performer than the 10.

[Kaboom]

1700 clams is going waay up in price, i don't have that much spening power at this moment, but waiting a while and saving up certainly is an option.
There is no balance control on the PV10. no tone controls, no balance, no nothing except two rotary selector knobs, one for volume and one for source. Audpiophile minimalism at its best.
Cheers!