Funny guy you are, sirspeedy and Brian too. But you know something guys, I really am close. I am pretty sure that anyone out there with one of the CAT amps has a weaker link in their system than the amp. So there's little need to fuss over moving up to a Signature or Mk II etc. If a CAT amp needs to be sent back to the factory for a repair, then an upgrade could also make sense while the unit is there....otherwise I am very fine to leave my CAT alone.
As for upgrading other components, I am content here too. Look at all the fuss with the digital stuff: EMM, Esoteric, MBL, etc. These guys are spending a fortune for upgrades here. I may be running with a 10 year-old Manley Ref DAC, but what Steve Huntley at GNSC just did to this thing for under $1k is nothing short of a miracle. An update with a ton of coupling caps, a couple of signal-cap value changes in the audio circuit, some line filtering, output stage filtering, chassis damping, etc., this thing can so easily compete again with the $10-20k units out there. Even Steve said when he heard this, "where did you get this thing?" He too was mightily impressed...and equally surprised at the results after his first level of updates. And he has seen and heard all the good stuff come across his bench.
And just last week he did the same with the first pass on my Aesthetix Io. And again, for under $1k. You don't get this kind of component upgrade performance for under $5k when you change to another component.
I feel I have found a handful of products out there now that are incredibly musical. Each of them had some areas that their competition outperformed. But the core of the sound of the products I chose did something very right at the start. And now I have discovered what a master engineer can do to some of these products, by addressing some weak points that were due to cost-cutting measures before. And in 5 years when the next generation of high-performance passive components come along, I will consider this option again. I'm pretty much done with these silly $5-10k component changes. They just don't make sense any more - the recent upgrade experiences have made this very clear to me.
The size and heat and tube costs for the CATs are a pain. The size of the SoundLab speakers are a bit of a pain....and the need to tweak their bias and calibrate their levels when the weather (seasonal) changes. The multitude of chassis for the Aesthetix and all their tubes are a pain. But only when something comes along that matches these components' performance and resolves these issues will I change anything. Yep, I am a very happy camper now. I need to replace my aging Clearaudio linear tonearm and resolve some remaining cable issues and that's it. If only I had a bigger room! Sigh.
John
