For example, the exposed transformers look a little too ‘businesslike’ in this case and some kind of casing would give this a more modern, and more expensive look. But it could do with some finishing touches. The brushed gold front panel, with black crackle rear and sides, is classic conrad-johnson. It’s not because that begins to look a little dated. It’s good because unlike every modern brand, its ‘today’ products perfectly match classic products of yore. The protector grille has a knack to it, if you want to attach or remove it – work from the back, because you get good visibility there. These can be accessed through the screw-on protector grille, using the supplied long piece of plastic screwdriver. The double triodes need no precise biasing, whereas there are bias adjusters and red LEDs for each E元4 on the top plate.
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The power amplifier stage itself has two 5965 tubes as input driver double triodes, a lone Electro-Harmonix 6922 as phase splitter and a pair of matched Mullard E元4s per channel. Eliminating the line stage – especially a c-j tube line stage – also has a direct benefit in that the output at the loudspeaker terminals is in absolute phase (c-j preamps typically invert phase). You need a device of sufficient gain and output impedance in order to use cables of 1m or longer, however. In fairness, the unique construction of attenuator after the input of the power amp means there can be longer cables between source and amplifier than if there were a passive preamp in the system. Although, in going down the passive route, long cables are off the radar anyway. Rather than paring down the quality too far, the CAV-45 eliminates the need for potentially sonically deleterious long interconnect cables between preamp and power amplifier. The company feels most integrated amps throw the baby out with the bathwater, eliminating key features and better quality components (in the process sacrificing good sound) just to make a cheaper product, or to have fewer models in the line. While for most people, a control amplifier is an archaic way of describing a preamplifier, conrad-johnson like to place some distance between a device like the CAV-45 and most integrated amplifiers. This fits well with the conrad-johnson’s ethos that rejects the idea of an ‘integrated’ in favour of a ‘control’ amplifier. The other great advantage to this arrangement is it’s incredibly low noise, up (should that be ‘down’?) there with high-performance standalone passives like the Townshend and MFA designs. This means you can run longish interconnect cables, but overall output is relatively low. In fact, rather than a power amp with a passive preamp, think of the CAV-45 as a power amplifier with three switchable inputs in place of the single preamp input, and a potentiometer in between that input and the triode-based voltage gain. These ’preamp’ stages are entirely gain-free, making this a power amp with built in passive stage. The CAV-45 is perhaps the ultimate in minimalist integrated (sorry, ‘control’) amplifiers, in that it has a power amplifier with a volume pot and a three input rotary selector where the power on LED usually sits. If you compare the casework of the control amplifier with the similar power amplifier, you notice less substantial power transformers, which leads to a less substantial weight and more even weight distribution. This isn’t exactly the case because where the power amplifiers push their power tubes to deliver a healthy 60 watts per channel, the CAV-45 delivers – as the name suggests – just 45 watts per channel from the same basic tube layout. The standard version of the Classic Sixty or Sixty-Two power amplifier forms the basis of the CAV-45, to the point where the CAV-45 could be considered one of those stereo power amplifiers with a three-input line stage attached. We almost skipped over the standard versions, little knowing that decision would come back quickly in the shape of the CAV-45 control amplifier. These feature hot-rodded versions of the standard models, with KT120 power valves in place of the stock E元4s. At that time, we focused on the SE versions of the Classic Sixty-Two and Classic One-Twenty. A couple of issues ago, we looked at the latest in the Classic line from conrad-johnson’s power amplifier range.
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