Hovland HP-100 vs. CAT SL1 Ultimate: Feedback

FYI, Romy had a serious confrontation with Ken Stevens of CAT at the 2002 CES so objectivity here for Romy is not certain. Ken basically threw Romy out of his room after Romy had been a very bad kitty.

i'm not trying to start anything here but history does mean something.

my opinion is that neither of these preamps are the last word in neutrality.....i am a big passive preamp fan myself. i do have friends with both units that really enjoy them. the CAT SL1 Ultimate is more neutral to my ears than the Hovland.....in other words you can 'hear' the sonic signature of the Hovland more in the system.....a good thing?....a matter of taste. many people love what these preamps do in their systems.

Verybigamp/Romy: If the kinds of pre-amps we've been discussing are easily dismissed as so much "...mass-market black boxes 'for kids'." or "...typical Audiogon's coca-cola.", what is your solution to pre-amplification?

You make provocative statements but do not offer the obvious: the counter recommendation. What is your stake in any of this? Are you a manufacturer of competing products or something?

Yes Verybigamp, please enlighten us! There are many brands which you named which I don't like, but I know what I do like. If there are any products which you think are not mass market black boxes. please let us know and why you think they are not coca cola. To get Ken Stevens really mad is not very difficult. If you are nice and tell us what you are talking about, I will post a link to an incident where a customer really made Ken furious by pushing the man's buttons. Maybe it was you! It seems you like to push buttons.

Sorry, Kalan.

My thinking about audio is too radical, too multifarious and too advanced to be able hosted at this site. Any more or less valuable comments I made (and that were greatly appreciated by people to whom I forwarded them) were rejected by the audiogon administration. So, cursing around you have to stick to the Mikelavigne’s coca-cola-like self-afraid intelligence…. this is the purpose of this site.

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

Then why waste your time with mere mortals like us?