Conrad Johnson manufactures high end audio electronics and they are based in Fairfax, Virginia. The company was started by Dr Lewis Johnson and Dr William Conrad in the late seventies. Their 1st ever product was a vacuum tube preamplifier called the PV-1.

See Simon's site for a great range of Conrad johnson Amplifiers

Conrad Johnson amplifiers are certainly not cheap, but that is to be expected with a brand renowned for high quality amps. Conrad Johnson has a large army of dedicated followers that certainly feel the prices are well worth it. To listen to your music in stereo you'll need two Twelve Tube monoblock Amplifier and at $7000 lets find out what you get for your cash.

The Conrad Johnson Twelve tube has a refined sleek look with a brushed brass finish. It has some relatively straight forward circuitry and a large output transformer. This allows a wide bandwidth and high phase linearity. It's nothing too spectacular, but it doesn't need to be. This amplifier has earnt its followers through its performance rather than style.

The CJ Twelve Tube's overall sound is extremely rich and open with a fantastic transparency, superb mids and a deep down racey bass. It manges the transitions between frequencies with ease, even at extremes, as well as through the upper and mid ranges. Something that even amplifiers of similar price tags often struggle with.

Tube amplifiers quite often have diffiulculties when it comes to transients, especially with rock and pop songs. The Twelve Tube handles these with ease with a focused and coherent sound throughout, being perhaps the finest I have heard in years.

Conrad Johnson is well known for the reliability of their amplifiers, and there is no exception when it comes to the Twelve Tube. Tube amplifiers are often seen to give problems in this area, but with the Twelve Tube you should have no worries.

So the Twelve Tube really does deliver, and the internet is an excellent place to start a search for these amplifiers. Just spend a bit of time and have a look around.

See Simon's site for a great range of Conrad johnson Amplifiers

McIntosh has been making amplifiers for a long, long time since 1949 infact, when the company was first incorporated as McIntosh Engineering labatory and moved from Washington D.C to silver spings Maryland.  However, the seeds  were planted as far back as 1942 when Frank McIntosh started a small company consulting on radio station design and sound systems. He was not satisfied with the quality of the audio amplifiers around at the time, so he invented one that gave high power with low distortion. Then in 1946, McIntosh recruited Gordon Gow, who was young but a brilliant engineer, and was pivotal in making his dream real. What they came up with was called the McIntosh 50W1 Unity Coupled Amplifier. It delivered fifty watts of power with less than 1% distortion in the 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz range. So McIntosh, the company, arrived in the world with a bang.

See this site for a great range of Mcintosh Amplifiers with some great prices

McIntosh have always been seen as the leaders of change in the industry. Many believe their most pivital moment was the development of the MC2505 with it's glass covered front and autoformers which at the time were completely unique.


Despite concerns by many when the company was taken over at beginning of the last decade to potential droping in standards and quality, which also coincided with Frank McIntosh's passing. The company is still little different to when it was originally formed, still producing beatifully designed amplifiers of the highest quality. Just look at the MC352.


McIntosh have always been wonderfully innovative in their designs through models such as the MC2102, MC200, MC602 and MC275. But with their wonderful performance and unreal sound the price tags are certainly worth it!


See this site for a great range of Mcintosh Amplifiers with some great prices

McIntosh are different to other competitiors who take their juice from just the output tubes. McIntosh developed the innovative way of taking power across the hub including the cathodes.


So why can't McIntosh's competitors replicate the amplifiers? After all the patent ran out years before. Well, the output transformers are still woven at headquaters and these give McIntosh their incredible performance at extreme levels and can't be copied.


In 1962 McIntosh  began what became probably one of the most successful as well as the longest running marketing campaigns in the Consumer Electronics industry known as  'The McIntosh Amplifier Clinic'. Whilst they believed that Mcintosh were "Still the Best"  they needed to come up with a solution to prove that to the consumer. This was done by testing amplifiers in stores, with shoppers there to witness, so they could demonstrate just how high the quality was. David H. O'brien may be the most associated man with McIntosh outside of Gordon Gow and of course Frank Mcintosh. He tested huge numbers of amplifiers all over The US and Canada for almost 30 years. You can read all about his story in the "The McIntosh Amplfier Clinics".


Ok, the Amplifiers sound incredible and whilst no one could say they are cheap you can find some very good deals especially on the internet, just search around.



See this site for a great range of Mcintosh Amplifiers with some great prices