[Puma Cat]

Here's pic of my current preamp, my C-J Premier 17LS:



The Premier 17 was based on the very famous ART design in a single chassis, used four 6922 tubes in it's gain stage designed to act as a "single-active-stage composite triode circuit introduced in the ART, which means the entire amplification circuit is a single active stage, without buffers or feedback." (quote from C-J's literature). The Premier 17LS was very comparable in design to the Premier 16LS, but used two fewer tubes in the composite triode circuit (four compared to six).

The Premier 17LS was Product of the Year for Audio Revolution.com in 2002. It was later updated to the Premier 17LS2, which incorporated C-Js Teflon capacitors, which further increased it's transient speed and transparency, but made the preamp's musical presentation a little more on the neutral side of things than the original Premier 17LS. I deliberately bought the 17LS as i am more inclined to give up a bit of transparency for a somewhat more warmer, more musical presentation. I'd rather have a slightly warmer basic preamp that I can pull back towards a more neutral presentation through tube rolling than the other way around, that way I can fine-tune the movement towards warmth or neutrality. My sensibilities are more around naturalness, accuracy of instrumental timbre, tone colors and presentation of musicality than absolute neutrality and ruthlessly revealing transparency.

Here is a link to it's design brief from C-J:

Premier 17LS Vacuum-Tube Line Stage Preamplifier

The 100 dB S/N certainly appears to be true; this is one very quiet preamp, especially considering it is a tube design.

Premier 17s are still very in much demand in the used community, Premier 17LS' sell in the $1800-$2000 price range, and Premier 17LS2s sell in the $2750-$3000 price range. Both models tend to move on Audiogon very quickly, generally within days, which is a testament to how highly valued this preamp by discrimating buyers even today. I got mine in mint condition for $1900. I spotted it at 11:00 PM the day it appeared on Audiogon, and when I called the seller (who was local) the very next morning, he had already had a full price offer on it. He sold it to me for that price as he did not want to deal with the hassle of having to ship it out, so I considered myself very lucky to have snagged it.

More on my own impressions on this wonderful preamp to follow this evening after work.