Minimum Cartridge output for CAT Ultimate Preamp

I used to own the CAT SL-1 Mk. III with the built-in phono stage, and I ran the 0.65mV van den Hul Frog with no problem.

I have an Ultimate II and have no problems using low output (0.2 - 0.3mv) cartridges. But....I use an Audio Note step up in front of the CAT.

Greetings,

You need to consider your complete system gain structure.

I took a look at the following review of an SL1 Ultimate:

http://www.gcaudio.com/products/reviews/infocat.html

It claims:

Phono gain: 47 dB (less than I'd expect)
Line Stage Gain:26 dB (this is HUGE)
-----------------------------------------------
Total Gain: 73 dB

I'd expect to see more gain in the phono section and less in the line section. The good news is that the combined gain is over 70 dB.

If the above stated gain is correct, you'll be fine with a cartridge in the .2 to .3 mv range.

Because of how the gain is distributed (more in the line stage and less in the phono), you'll notice that you're turning down your volume control when listening to line level sources like CD.

I wouldn't stress out over this, but mention it anecdotally.

When I popped the lid on a later CAT, I noticed that the attenuator is a series type, rather than a ladder type so the lower your volume setting, the more resistors and solder joints your signal is passing through.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Thom,

Intersting point regarding the total gain. One thing to add is that Ken Steves told me that the effective input voltage that the line stage will be from the phono stage is 200 x phono output. That means a 0.5mv cartirdge output would feed 1,000 mv, i.e., 1.0 v to the Line stage. With 26 dB in the line stages, does this seem reasonable?

CORRECTION (I need to brush up on my math):

In the above example the input the line stage section would see is 100mv (not 1,000 mv), i.e., 0.1 V. apparently this should not be compared to the output voltages of CD players since they have a different dB baseline.

Anyway, I'm hearing that 0.5mv cartirdge output should work just fine with the CAT pre. I've heard some say they are happy with 0.24mv outputs with dynamic systems.

Thanks.