best preamp ever - cost is no object

Professor Norm,
No hard feelings. I'm sorry that I came on so strong but on this forum if you do not come strong then you get run over by people just looking to deliver a beating.

As I mentioned in my previous post, before you started advocating magic pebbles and teleportation, I held your opinion at the highest level. But I have to be honest with you; the placebo affect of those tweaks is hard for me to swallow as a person of science.

I think that I know what kind of signal processing is used on your H-CAT and if I'm correct then I can see why you have come to love it. I'm using a more complex implementation of the same concept in my reference system and enjoy what it does for the presentation.

If you come down to Houston and have some free time let me know, I would like to host you for an evening of listening and audio chat.

Carlos, it is not the case that I am advocating the teleportation tweak or Magic Pebbles. I found a benefit from the teleportation tweak and with regards to the Magic Pebbles, initially heard nothing, then with a quite different placement found great benefit, and finally with the new H-Cat found I could no longer use them.

I know the effects of perceptual bias as well as the liabilities of DBTesting. I also know that it works many ways with people who don't want to hear anything less likely to hear one. But as I have said, I am seeking accurate and thrilling music reproduction, and will leave it up to those with more circuit knowledge to innovate. If I hear a demonstration of a tweak or component and it moves me toward greater realism, and if I can afford it, I will buy it.

My biggest problem with some on Audiogon is that they think they know all there is to science. Since there have been many scientific advancements since I got my degree in 1961 and when you got yours, I cannot understand why you would think what we know now is all there is to know. But even more importantly, if you don't try things that others find beneficial, how will you ever know that our understanding falls short. I encourage open-mindedness, as I know too often science gets into a set paradigm for years only to have some finding shake it up.

I don't teach any natural science, but science can be used effectively on social science issues and I teach the scientific method at both undergraduate and graduate levels. I was one of the very first political scientists to do so as I was advantaged by my science majors in undergraduate school.

Now that I am retired, I can venture to Houston more often. I hope to be down soon to hear Fred's Acapellas. You are invited to come up here also. I have no tube equipment now, however.

carlos..if you dont mind when you have a get together.I would like to listen to your system and learn a few thing from you..with the same background EE and working with HP design group.i think i can learn alot from you.engineer and audiophile do not mix in my opinion.I am 5 min from champion forest

Voss Audio Victory?

I would take the FM Acoustics or VAC.