CAT Preamps vs Amps

Art, I have been waiting to hear back from you and JD as I thought you were going to bring over a bundle of power cords. Fortunately I got my system up and running again last night after tracking down a bad tube in the Io. Still I have a noise issue here I'd like to get way down. I then had to re-bias the A1s that for whatever reason were causing severe distortion at only medium levels. Must have been the crazy fluctuations in the room's humidity lately to cause this. So hurry up and come on over before something else goes out of alignment!

Jafox,

Good answer. I agree that by experimenting with different brands of preamps you can attain an overall balance preferable to your tastes. In terms of a "better-match", I think Strapper211 means that their preamp is probably designed with the same technical objectives and results of their amplifiers in mind and ultimately voiced together. I think this creates a singularity in that the preamp becomes transparent to the amp and thereby requiring careful selection of the source's musical characteristics to create the preferrential match. However, the choice of a preamp would add another degree of control. But at that point, it will be a compromise of strengths and weaknesses.

At the core of this comparison is the incredibly neutral and musical ability of the CAT Amps to characterize the preamps vs. source components matches. I'm extremely happy with my JL2-II. I think the ratio of resolution/transparency to musical experience is close to 1.

Cheers,

AO

Hi,the legend will be out in a few months so hold tight.Ken says it is a real killer and will complement his amps,and the combination should be Nirvana.

I had an update re. CAT preamps & I thought that I'd post it here FWIW. There are other threads that also talk 'bout this subject here on Audiogon but they might be far back in the archives.

I took member "rayhall"(A'gon) & "TubeNewbie"(AA) advice & got a pair of Telefunken 6922 tubes. I also bought a pair of Amperex 7308 USN-CEP, white label tubes. Both these tubes were bought for the V6-V7 only position. They 12AX7 tubes I use are Electro-Harmonix. All other 6922 are Sovtek provided by the factory.
By merely tube rolling the V6-V7 tubes w/ the above 2 mentioned brands has made the sound my CAT SL1 Sig Mk3 even better! I love it more!
The Telefunken tubes impart more of what the Sovtek 6922 gave - better & fuller bass & a touch sweeter highs are the 2 items I note the most.
The Amperex tubes give a touch of warmth to the midrange. it's more seductive now but not so much that it's syrupy. Bass remains full & robust. The highs remain extended & retain their sparkle.
Both these tubes allow me to seemingly have my cake & eat it too in that I don't seem to compromise the CAT intended sound while I can fine tune it depending on my mood/preferred music delivery.
I believe that 'rayhall' uses Tele 12AX7 in V8, V9 & a Tele 6DJ8 in V10. Wish I could too but my pockets aren't that deep! :-)
Just FYI. FWIW.

Bombaywalla: I recently got a batch of Tele 12AX7's and with the help of a tube tester, I was able to match (by output signal strength) several pairs for my Aesthetix gear. I still have several of these left. If your short on a budget but would like to give them a try, I can ship a pair to you. I also have found the EI tubes to be quite impressive as well and they tend to be dead quiet vs. the majority of Tele's...but they don't have quite the Tele midrange magic. I think I also have one remaining pair of Mullard 12AX7 that you could try; I like these a lot due to their dynamics and very good tonal coherency So I could send you 3 pairs for you to try in the CAT. Should not be more than a few $ shipping costs. This way you can try these out before you spend a lot for something that might make a big difference....and then ship them back to me at a later date. Let me know if you're interested.
John