Price Paid:  $2000.00 from used

Summary:
I bought this one used for 5 months ago, and am still shocked. This is way beyond every other preamps I have had in my system, including the costlier ML 380 which has been my refference untill now. If I only had heard the Premier Fourteen earlier, that would have saved me for many years of changing preamps. Both macro- and above all micro-dynamics are jaw-droppingly good. So rich, blossomy and sweet, yet articulate and exceptionally detailed. Now I just wonder how CJ can stop making such a great product. I guess the more expensive CJs would be like absolutely fantastic. Maybe I will one day have the money for an ART. Just curious how a preamp can possibly be any better than the Premier Fourteen.

Strengths:
Extremely musical, wonderfull midrange. Dynamic. Superb layering.

Weaknesses:
Noisy with most 6gk5 tubes. Need the best NOS-tubes there is.

Similar Products Used:
ARC LS 22. ML 380.

Summary:
A great pre amp! It sounds well-balanced as a fantastic tube pre amp with articolation and dynamic as a solid state.With GE tubes it is at the state of art.

Strengths:
Soundstage, tonal balance, dynamics.

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Nad S100,ARC LS7, ARC LS22

Summary:
The Conrad Johnson Premier 14 is my fifth preamp mated with my third pair of Apogee speakers. Previous preamps, a small, inexpensive, tubed Carey (I forget the model), Soundstream, ARC LS2 and ARC LS22. I upgraded preamps so frequently because Apogee speakers (I now own Slant 8s) are very revealing, and I have become preamp sensitive. I owned the ARC LS2 for many years, and liked its ability to give a 3D soundstage with excellent separation of instruments. It had a fairly solid bass, and the tonal quality of instruments was quite good. The reason I decided to upgrade is that I began to hear an electronic signature that eventually got to me. I upgraded to the LS22 because it was magical in the midrange. Better than any other preamp I have heard. Lush, enormous soundstage, perhaps not exactly true, but I was in love, so I didn't care. However, the treble and bass were not strong. The treble was harsh and the bass was fat and wobbly. I settled on the Premier 14 because it does certain things quite well and nothing that I can hear wrong. First, it has an excellent soundstage, wide and deep, like the ARCs. It does not have the huge, seductive soundstage of the LS22 (wow!), but it is excellent. I would not say that it has a lush sound, but it certainly is warm and involving. Tonally, it is excellent, and it lacks any electronic signature that I can hear. (Perhaps if I owned an ART for a while, I would begin to hear the Premier 14's electronic signature.) For now, it sounds pure and clear. It is not overly "tubular," however it has a warm, slightly "bloomy" sound. I will probably keep this preamp forever ("where have I heard that before?" says my wife), or certainly many other components will be upgraded before it is. I have heard other preamps that do some things better, or at least more enticingly, but I have not heard a preamp that does the entire range of things quite as well, at least not in its price range. I have come to believe that the preamp is the most important single component in the stereo chain, because everything goes through it and it effects every other component's sound. In a certain sense, it is the "first watt" that is delivered to the amp. If you are like I am, and eventually become sensitive to a preamps "signature," I believe that the Premier 14 is an excellent choice for those of us who can't afford the very high priced spread. (Not that it's exaclty inexpensive.)

Summary:
Actually your Premier 14 can perform better than the four stars submitted. The 14 comes with the 2 pairs of 6GK5 tubes, right? By replacing the Sylvania ones, i.e. the ones in the back, with RCA tubes or GE's the dynamics, the transients and the details are on par with the Premier 7. Guys, you know what? The problem with tube pre-amplifiers is that the good NOS tubes are shirking. Gone will be the Telefunkan, gone will be the GE's, gone will be the RCA and so on. I beg Conrad-Johnson can buy better tubes and install into their pre-amplifiers. Their amps. will then deserve more than four stars

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Summary:
2 steps short of heaven - the 16LS and the ART beingthe steps. Dynamic, rhythmic, huge, spacious and easyto listen to. Not a single part of the frequency out of proportion - marginally soft highs and bettered in every respect by its older brothers. Nothing else comes close.