NEW !!! conrad-johnson CA150 Control Amplifier

joeinid

joeinid

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Conrad-Johnson is pleased to announce the availability of the new conrad-johnson CA150 control amplifier – a power amplifier with level control and source selectors. A control amplifier is identical in function to an integrated amplifier, but without the additional distortions that would be inherent in a superfluous line-stage. Like an integrated amplifier, a control amplifier also eliminates the colorations of preamplifier to amplifier interconnect cables. The CA150 combines the circuitry of our popular MF2275 power amplifier with source selector circuits and a Burr-Brown precision level control.
 
MF2275 135 Watts per channel from 20 Hz to 20 KHz at no more than 1.0% THD or IMD, both channels driven into 8 ohms
 
" but without the additional distortions that would be inherent in a superfluous line-stage. Like an integrated amplifier, a control amplifier also eliminates the colorations of preamplifier to amplifier interconnect cables"

That don't bother no one here? I agree with it anyway.
 
Tomelex said:
" but without the additional distortions that would be inherent in a superfluous line-stage. Like an integrated amplifier, a control amplifier also eliminates the colorations of preamplifier to amplifier interconnect cables"

That don't bother no one here? I agree with it anyway.
Click to expand...

Tomelex.......The ol' sales pitch. Our amps are "straight wire with gain". Yeah, ok! . :rolleyes:
 
The idea of a control amplifier makes sense nowadays in any case. With outboard phono amps, and dacs, or even tape decks, it makes sense if you can have your source(s) close enough to the control amplifier.
 
They are functionally the same, afaik? ASR Emitter also markets their amps as control amplifiers.

Is is the absence of an active line stage, ie, passive pre? Or do they control the gain? The reference to the Burr-Brown VC seems to suggest not.

If so, most of the integrateds in the market with a passive pre section are also "control amplifiers".... :confused: Marketing indeed :thumbup:
 
By and large most preamplifiers, including preamplifiers in integrated amplifiers, exert most of their infuence reducing gain, not increasing it. If connected directly to a power amplifier, the typical source component's output voltage of 2.0 Vrms unbalanced or 4.0 Vrms balanced would immediately drive power amplifier peaks to full rated output or beyond. What a preamplifier does is allow user control over the source component output voltage by allowing adjustment from 0 volts to beyond the typical source component output voltage, thus providing volume control. Most of the time a preamplifier's function is to reduce output voltage sent to a power amplifier. The one exception to this is the phono stage part of a preamplifier. As we control volume, far more of a preamplifier's time is spent decreasing output voltage than is spent amplifying source component voltage beyond its typical output level.
 
Specifications not much to write home about for 2015 solid state product, just sayin.

Specifications:
Power: 135 watts per channel RMS both channels driven into 8 ohms from 20Hz to 20 kHz at no more than 1% total harmonic distortion or intermodulation distortion.
Sensitivity: 2 V rms to rated power
Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20 kHz +0/-.3 dB
Hum and Noise: 100 dB below rated power output
 
Tomelex said:
Specifications not much to write home about for 2015 solid state product, just sayin.

Specifications:
Power: 135 watts per channel RMS both channels driven into 8 ohms from 20Hz to 20 kHz at no more than 1% total harmonic distortion or intermodulation distortion.
Sensitivity: 2 V rms to rated power
Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20 kHz +0/-.3 dB
Hum and Noise: 100 dB below rated power output
Click to expand...

Geez Tom, you mean it doesn't measure as well as your old Hafler gear? I guess that means your Hafler gear sounds much better so everyone should run out and buy a DH-110 preamp that never sounded worth a damn when it was new and a pair of Hafler DH 220 amps that were mediocre at best (the midrange couldn't touch the Dynaco ST-70 that David Hafler brought to market many years before the DH 220 with its awesome set of specs) instead of the cj integrated. Total cost would be around $500 for all three pieces instead of $5K for the cj. Ever wonder why the ST-70 is still bringing good money in the marketplace and you can hardly give away a DH 220? I don't.

I owned the Hafler DH 220 when it first came out many, many years ago when I couldn't afford anything better. I know how that amp sounds. My best friend in Maine owned the DH-110 and it was a horrid sounding preamp. I had to bring my preamp to his house every time we listened to his stereo because we both knew how bad the DH 110 sucked. He finally sold the damn thing and bought a real preamp. You need to quit beating your chest over measurements and how swell your Hafler gear is and how you still think it represents the SOTA. The Hafler SS gear was never meant to be anything other than what it was: cheap entry level gear that sounded decent (except for the DH-110 which was just horrid). It was never an assault on the SOTA.
 
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