Hovland HP-100 vs. CAT SL1 Ultimate: Feedback

OK, since Romy will not share, the rest of us un-enlightened kids, drinking coca-cola pre-amps will just have to toil on in darkness.

Back to CAT vs. Hovland: I have a feeling, based on what I heard with the CAT in my system and from what I could gather from my HP-100 audition in another system (and from others' comments), the CAT may indeed be closer to neutral. BUT, the CAT will not properly mate electrically with the Cary SLAM-100 power-amps (aggressive, in-your-face, pre-amp output vs. power-amp input sensitivity mismatch, etc). This must also be the case with some other power-amps out there.

Ken Stevens (or anybody else at CAT) has not responded to my query about this. Back to square one.

Dear Kalan,

Happend to read responces to your question and want to give you my opinion (if it is important one?!).

I owned four different CAT preamps: from Reference to Ultimate. Had a chance to hear most of the preamps on the market in my system, or in the systems I know very well(sorry, didn't have Holand pre at home) and nothing could make me to sell my CAT, only if the new model was coming, and own one now.

Tell you why. I agree with Musicluvr and Jamsoul about neutrality of this product. Only,it comes together with the warm, full sound, huge soundstage, and the best bass you can get from the tube preamp. Never sounded up-front. Single instruments and voices are like you would hear them in a real life. Phono stage is "forte" of the CAT and, possibly, best available outside some external mega-buck components. I played this preamp with many different cartriges and amps and never had problems with matching. Did I get lucky?

I just remembered one old review on CAT preamp (possibly Dick Olsher?) where he mentioned that ...if you don't like something about your system after you introdused SL-1, look for the answers somewhere else. Chances are that it showed you what you didn't hear before and will help you to tune your system...

About your problem with "in-your-face" sound. Think about placement of the speakers (new component allways comes with their re-positioning), cables you use, etc. By the way, using cables like Magnan Signature will help to reduce gain. My freind use two of them and it helped in his case. Also, CAT used to have available "special" volume control for the customers with very small rooms or high gain components to give them twice more steps before it gets loud. Missing resistors are for the phono loading and will change the sound of the cartrige,not gain. You should use them with low output MC. 100 Ohm or lower will give you warmer and deaper sound, 150 Ohm and higher would open it up.

Don't give up on your CAT before you CAN'T use it at all. I know people who sold their CAT for various reasons and now regret they did it. After all, it plays music!

Good luck in your difficult search for the PERFECT preamp in your system.

Please don't egg him on. Then we'll be stuck with him like they are on Audio Asylum.

Hi Kalan I believe your situation of ouput .vs hight input sensitvity in not isolated to the Cary. I had the same problem when I mated the Cat with a Plinius SA 100 mk 3 (which is 1 volt sensitive input to full power) to my 91db sensitive Dunlavy SCIV. If you want to continue using the Cary slams, I would go with less sensitive speaker as this will balance things out.But be careful if you want to use a low output cartridge as low efficiency speakers can sound lifeless with lowlevel source.Or switch to another amp with a less sensitive input.regards Tim

Tonestudio: Please tell us what power amps you used with the CAT pre-amps you have had. Musicluvr just mentioned that he had similar "mating" problems with the CAT and his Plinius amps. (Thanks, Musicluvr) I am sure that you are right about the CAT not being the at fault in a system in which the CAT and the power amps actually electrically mate properly with each other, but what about a sheer electrical mismatch?

I have to consider that other pre-amps like the cj LS16 sounded down-right subdued in my system, the likelihood that changing speaker placement is really not the issue. The (early version) First Sound Presence pre-amp sounds laid back and smooth in my system. My M3A is not aggressive with the speakers right were they are. I have a Lamm LL2 in for an audition and will start listening tonight. This will give me no fewer than four other pre-amps to compare with the CAT's sound in my system.

Don't get me wrong; I am not claiming that the CAT is an aggressive-sounding piece. I know that it does not sound that way in lots of systems. The CAT just does not have the right output impedance for my pwr amps.

The M3A "over-drove" the ASL Hurrican DT-200s also. This is not limited to CAT pre's and Cary pwr amps by any means.

Thank you, Musicluvr, for your feed back about your CAT experience. I suspected an output-to-input mismatch--just as you confirmed--because I had similar experiences with a Wright Sound dedicated phono pre-amps several years ago. It's nice to get that second experiential corroboration

I am beginning to wonder if many folks are overlooking the matching characteristics of the pre-amp to pwr-amp interface. Everyone pays lots of attention to amp-to-speaker matching, but the pre-to-pwr match involves much of the same issues; they're just at a much wider range of allowed mating than amp-to-speaker. Both involve output impedance and gain relative to input impedance and sensitivity.