What can you tell me about First Sound pre-amps?

Hi Art,

No deal! I am keeping them both. If you search my threads, you will see where I have pontificated on the CAT many times before and even compared it to the F.S. I'll sum it up for you quickly:

1. CAT is warmer and smoother with a more of a "middle of
of the hall" sound.
2. CAT has deeper bass (in my system). See Morgan's
comment about the high impedance F.S. matched with
low impedance Pass Aleph series.
3. CAT's midrange is a little bit more laid back and is
more full, ripe and lush. One thing the First Sound is not is lush. I wouldn't say the CAT has a lot of tube
bloom, but it is certainly more bloomy than the F.S.
4. CAT has the second best dynamics which I have heard in
a preamp. Guess who is first?
5. CAT is less detailed than F.S., but surprisingly has a
lot of high frequency detail to my ear. Although not bright, the CAT will do a great job at the extreme high end in revealing overtones, if the rest of your system is up to the task.
6. F.S. is dead quiet, while the CAT has an almost imperceptible, but still noticeable, high frequency hiss.
7. They are about equal in soundstage.
8. F.S. has better imaging. Definition of boundaries of instruments in the soundstage is better. Placement of instruments in soundstage is more diffuse and more difficult to localize with the CAT.
9. CAT is very clean sonically but has nowhere the transparence of the F.S. Only in direct comparison can you hear the difference in clarity and transparence. As good as the CAT is: neutral, natural and musical, it does not impart the "you are there" quality to the same degree.

Which one you pick will depend on your tastes and,I guess, which best matches the rest of your system. In my opinion, you couldn't have two class A products which sound more different. I am keeping them both!

Hi Morgan,

In 2003, after owning the F.S. for a few months, Emmanuel emailed me, due to things that I had written here on Audiogon about the F.S. Although, I never trashed the F.S., it was evident that I wasn't completely happy. One of the first things that came up was impedance mismatch. I asked him what could be done, short of getting rid of the Pass Amp or the F.S. He basically said that nothing could be done. Also, I corresponded with Drubin, who is also involved with this thread and who had a Pass X series amp at the time and who was hearing a lot of what I was hearing at the time. I believe Drubin and I got into the subject when he started a thread with the title of something like
"what is the Sound of an Impedance Mismatch". I believe the sound is rolled-off deep bass, reduced dynamics and perhaps somewhat rolled-off highs, but I am not sure about the last thing. I definitely have rolled-off bass, and the dynamics were ordinary until I discovered Siemens tubes, which turn the dynamics to anything from outrageous to just superb, the Siemens 6922 with the outrageous dynamics and the Siemens 7308 with just superb dynamics. With Telefunken 7308's, the overall sonic presentation of the F.S. is quite ordinary. I haven't heard that brightness is a consequence of impedance mismatch, though. Emmanuel suggested several things:
1. Cabling, including power cabling.
2. Whether the F.S. is plugged in directly to the wall or is powered via a power conditioner/power strip
3. Checking polarity. Making sure that speaker cables invert polarity in order to "correct" inverted polarity of the F.S.

It is through these contacts with Emmanuel, that I bought the Shunyata Sidewinder Gold power cords and eventually got the unit upgraded at the end of this year.

I think that is more likely that I am hearing the character of the F.S., at least through my own listening prism, which is probably less tolerant of bright sound than most people. Certainly the F.S. would never be described as unlistenably bright by anyone whom I would respect for their sonic opinions, but I wanted to corroborate Mphnkns, who seemed a little frustrated with the unit, that others hear what he hears, even if we don't see it as a fatal flaw. Artg also seems to agree. I wouldn't want mine changed either, for fear of losing what it does so well. Instead, I'll just use the other preamp sometimes, until I can afford to put together a second system around the CAT.

Thanks, Drubin!

Rayhall thanks again. I bought a CAT SL-1 Ultimate MK II today. I had been eying it for a long time, so it was time to finally pull the trigger. I'm partial to smooth, lush and midhall performance. Plus David Berning himself likes the CAT with the Berning. I am hoping this will be the last peice of gear I buy for a loooong time. Time to start enjoying the music. Anyway, thanks for the input!

BTW, what tubes are in the CAT? I have a set of nice 6922's from my FS days that i would love to put back into service.

Hi Art,

Now you've got me interested! I have always wanted to know about the Mk II and what it sounded like relative to the Mk I. Since I have a Mk I, your experience might differ somewhat, but I love the Telefunken 6922's in the V6 and V7 position, Telefunken 12AX7 in the V8 and V9 position and a Telefunken 6DJ8 in V10. If you don't use phono and your unit has a phono section, you can economize with the tubes in V1-V5. Otherwise, use the same tubes in V1-V5. If the cost of this tube substitution is too expensive, you can either leave or acquire the stock EI Yugo 12AX7's. They are not bad at all. But do replace the stock Sovtek 6922's. With Telefunken, you will get deeper bass, better dynamics, and better extension in the high frequencies. As far as the Mark I is concerned, I have tried many tubes in the CAT Ultimate, particularly in the V6 and V7 position, and I doubt that you will find better than the Telefunken 6922. With other NOS tubes that I have tried, you are bound to lose something

You just made my day. I has spent a small fortune on a pair of Amperex 'pinched waist' 6922's (US) from 1960, which were simply awesome in the FS. I did not sell them with the FS, so now they will have a home in my CAT!