New "Classic" Amplifiers from Conrad-Johnson

by The Audio Beat | January 24, 2017

ew for 2017 from Conrad-Johnson, one of high-end audio's best-known makers of tubed products, are two stereo power amps. The Classic Sixty-Two (top, $4250) and Classic One-Twenty ($8000) are said to borrow heavily on the technology of Conrad-Johnson's flagship ART amplifiers and are "a fulfillment of our commitment to adapt the advances of our state-of-the-art designs to more affordable products accessible to a broader range of audiophiles and music lovers."

Both amplifiers are the product of Conrad-Johnson's professed philosophy that "best results come from simple circuits executed with quality parts." Both use the broadly admired EL34 output tube. The Classic Sixty-Two uses a pair of EL34s per channel to output 60Wpc, and the Classic One-Twenty uses four of these tubes per channel to deliver 120Wpc.

Special Edition (SE) versions of the Classic Sixty-Two and Classic One-Twenty are also available. These have Teflon capacitors and metal-foil resistors in strategic spots and use KT120 output tubes. The Classic Sixty-Two SE costs $5750 and the Classic One-Twenty SE is $10,000.