Ne olivat aikoja joku vuosi sitten. Putkiklassikko Conrad-Johnsonin järeä 1980-luvun putkipääte MV75a ja Quadin uusi putkietunen Q24. Nekin vain sitten piti pistää kiertoon... Myynnin syy oli vielä tuon aikainen iso halu tavoitella loistavaa kokonais soundia. Vanha putkvahvistin ei tietenkään tarjoillut kovin jämäkkää basson kontorollia ja slämmiä. Tämän päivän katsannosssa pitäisin kyllä ko laitteeet. Ovat jo teollisina esineinä niin kiehtovat
Well, one day a group of customers came in from another city, traveling a long distance to my store just to hear the Aleph 3. They were prepared to buy one on the spot, but first they wanted my personal opinion (as a fellow "tube lover") directly to their faces, and then make some comparisons. As usual, they were seriously disappointed when I relayed the experiences we had in my own system (and with other more expensive tube amplifiers). Then one of them asked about the CJ MV-75, sitting on a display shelf.
He wanted to know how it would compare to the Aleph 3. I told him that I didn't know: For whatever reason, I had never compared the Aleph to an older generation tube amplifier. Maybe I had thought it would be an unfair comparison, since the Aleph 3 was more than 3 times the cost of the CJ, and the CJ also hadn't been played for weeks. Still, I immediately decided to oblige them, and frankly, I was curious myself. Could a 15 year old tube amplifier, now considered "obsolete" by most audiophiles, actually compete with the most modern and acclaimed transistor amplifier in the current market place?
The Aleph 3 was already "warmed up", so we played it while the MV-75 warmed-up in another room (with load resistors in the speaker banana jacks). The customers were surprisingly impressed with the Aleph 3 (driving the Coincident Visionary Reference). I could actually notice some of them starting to second guess my opinion of it (maybe Stereophile was right!). After 45 minutes or so, and a variety of music, all CDs, I put in the MV-75, choosing the same CD* we had just heard, to make the comparison as easy and relevant as possible. The music was early Baroque, with a variety of original instruments and voices. It didn't take long to get a reaction...
Out of "Retirement"-One Final Victory
I'll never forget the CD or the male voice we heard that day (Cut 2-Stradella-Esule dalle sfere*). This may also still be true of the other listeners in the room. In short- The CJ MV-75 was much more natural and real than the Aleph 3. To such a degree, that we were all stunned to the point of total silence, outside of some spontaneous grunts and a "My God". We all realized that we had experienced something important, and it would take some time to digest it. In a haze, and by rote, I made some other comparisons, demonstrating the Aleph 3's superiority in bass control, but by then the customers didn't care. They thanked me, and left. As they walked up the steps from my basement store, I could hear them agreeing that the long trip was well worth it, despite the results.
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