CONRAD-JOHNSON ART AND ACT2 UPGRADES READY TO ROLL!

Owners of the conrad-johnson ART Series 1 and Series 2 models, as well as those using the more recent ACT2 Series 1 line preamplifier will be pleased to know that full scale factory upgrades to the ART Series 3 and ACT2 Series 2 specifications are now available!

For those with good memory, ART (in both its S1 and S2 liveries) used to be a long standing absolute reference among the valve line preamplifiers since its release as a 20th Anniversary (of) conrad-johnson design product. Like most conrad-johnson products, ART lived a nice and long life before most of the 250 numbered units were produced and sold. After a relatively short break, the ACT2 valve line preamplifier was launched and quite convincingly took the position of a new flagship among the c-j preamplifiers. Usual press accolades and awards followed suit.

While interesting things happened at the top of the conrad-johnson preamplifier pyramid, another model, CT-5, entered the scene almost unnoticed (to begin with). It soon became quite clear that CT5 added a number of very special and unique musical 'ingredients' to its overall sound. Delighted with all the benefits of various new solutions within the audio and power supply circuits, C & J went back to the drawing board and implemented them into the ACT2 circuit with even greater overall improvement. This is how the ACT 2 Series 2 came into this world and, according to many, performed so much better it demanded to be looked at as a new product rather than just a supercharged version of the original design!

While changes were taking place around the ACT2, it became known that 25 serial numbers remained unused from the previous generations of the ART preamplifier. With all the new experience and knowledge from the work undertaken on the CT5 and ACT2 Series 2, an even more authoritative flagship was soon to become reality - welcome the ART SERIES 3! The concept of this dual-mono preamplifier allowed a much higher degree of "total" solutions around the single-ended triode circuit using 6922 valves. This time around, a very limited number of units (25) available (and already almost sold out!) were honestly complemented by an unsurpassed level of musical sound quality demonstrating a huge quantum leap over the previous versions. As if we suspected ART S3 would happen someday, we kept our last ART Series 2 unit in our possession ever since the product has been discontinued. That enabled us to perform direct comparisons with the Series 3. It soon became clear there was not much to compare! Needless to say, our ART Series 2 will soon be on its way to the conrad-johnson factory to become an ART Series 3 and cotinue its life within an audio system of one very fortunate music lovers before too long.