CATSL1 best pre under 3K?

DaveyF

I challenge you to a dynamic preamp throw-down! If you are near MN I will
bring my Dude over or you bring your CAT over my place. Are we on?!

Dynamics are SOTA in my Dude. Never heard better in this area. I
would love to be proven wrong or set you straight:)

Let's do it! We will post the result for all Agoners to read.

I hope you are close as I can't bring 70 plus pounds of electronics on a
plane!

You have a very nice system and well thought out room. Congrats.

This is all in good fun and I am open to such a throw down for fun and to
meet other Aphiles.

Also for the poster I have owned and listened to more preamps over the past years than you could imagine. All in my system and room. Many costing up to $12,000 new as I have been fortunate to sell gear for several high end audio friends. Without exaggeration I have listened to and compared at least 20 highly touted and highly reviewed preamps over the past 10 years....perhaps more as I lost count.

The ones mentioned are all very good indeed.... like Coincident & CAT. Others like Tom Evans Vibe, Tom Evans Soulmate, various Joule units, Atmasphere, Audio Horizons, CJ, etc...are also very good. But, in terms of which ones can be had at $3,000 and under, not sure you can get some of these like the Dude or Coincident.

The two best I have heard (in my system) under $3,000 would be these and in this order....

Audio Valve Eklipse ......absolutely a sleeper used.

Tom Evans Vibe alone and even better with Pulse power supply. But the power supply may be out of your budget.

In the spirit of fun and experimentation I hope you two can pull this off. I've
heard both the DUDE and CAT and no way would I conclude that the CAT is
more dynamic or resolved than the DUDE.In my system compared
directl(DUDE and Coincident), the DUDE is quite dynamic, bold and
"big" sounding yet very good across the board. The Coincident
is also very dynamic but is more nuanced and resolved/transparent (at
least in my system against that "particular" DUDE, I know there are different

individual custom versions available). The point is that either will be chosen
based on specific preferences and a multitude of variables. So it's difficult
to turn this into a "mine is definitely better than yours" battle.
Excellent active preamplifiers enhance any good audio system in my
opinion.
Have fun you two.
Charles,

Jwm and I are neighbors and friends for well over 20 years. Between the two of us we have heard a slew of highly regarded preamps. Jwm had the CAT for a good while then bought a ARC REF 2 and later replaced that with the VAC Signature MK II. In his system the VAC was the better sounding by a good margin in my opinion (none of these were bad however). Jwm's current Absolare Passion is simply wonderful and has eclipsed the excellent VAC. There are many fine preamps available.
Charles,

Granny, the challenge would be interesting. However, I live on the West Coast, so
the distance is a factor. When I heard the Dude it was in a friend's system who
also was using a Counterpoint SA5.1. The Counterpoint was the better sounding
preamp to the Dude that day, IMO.
BTW, I notice that no one here seems to be using analog as a front end...perhaps
that is telling us something.