What is your experiences with t H Cat 12B Pre-amp


I recently acquired a nice condition North American Products 12B pre-amp, but did not get any documentation of any sort.

I would be interested in knowing the recommended set up procedure for the Wavefront circuit, and what the basic specifications of the unit might be. Amount of gain, input and output impedance, output devices, signal to noise ration..and so forth.

Also, if you have owned it, what is your opinion on the unit as a whole? Do you still own it, and what gear have you used it with?

Looking forward to reading your thoughts and experiences.

Regards
Neonknight
neonknight
You'll read a lot about your pre-amp in the forums. IIRC, there were widely divergent opinions about it.
I did go through all the info i could find on Google, which of course led to several posts here in the Audiogon forums. What I gleaned from things is that those who heard the pre amp seemed to think it was pretty good. i also saw that many were leary of the Wavetouch option, and not happy with the explanations of how it works. Some info I seemed to come across suggested it was working on the Doppler effect, which would have to have another corollary to it, as its primary mechanism has to do with the source of a sound wave moving, and how this travel changes its pitch to a stationary listener. Not sure how ti would relate to an audio system.

So far I think its pretty respectable pre-amp, although it does seem to be on the verge of being a bit too lively at times. Although i could see someone arguing that it is either the source material, or perhaps a related device such as a less than optimum match between interconnects or speaker wire.

I am just really curious to know the design philosophy behind the conventional portion of the pre-amp. What the output devices are, what the circuit is like. But there seem to be so little in terms of specifics of how this piece is built.

Regards
Mister Pig