Hello all,
This is one of the most positive, congenial and helpful (good spirited) threads I have ever read. This hobby is so starved for female participation that guys do backflips trying to assist a lady in distress. I am pretty sure the CAT ULT MK2 would be in this discussion if not for the balanced output disqualifier. I am not sure why that is a serious disqualification (they do make audiophile IC adapters that shouldn't degrade the sound much). At any rate, from immense tube rolling in the CAT, I have found that the CAT can be tuned to taste with carefule tube selection. It can be moved from hard and aggressive to overly euphonic and all points between. It is a very transparent product with better dynamics, bass and high end extension than I have heard from other tubed pres.
The advantage that tubes provide over solid state is that the sound can be adjusted to taste. Another point is that
people like variety. You have that with a simple tube swap. No matter how good your solid state system sounds, it probably will become stale over time. People wonder why in the world would a guy cheat on his gorgeous super model wife? People like variety.
Bart
