I cannot imagine a CAT Ultimate which sounds bright. Only terms such as smooth and musical come to mind when describing this unit. In my opinion, it has the absolutely most liquid midrange of any preamp which I have ever heard. If anything, I find it slightly warm rather than bright. As I also own the First Sound Presence Deluxe 4.0, I find that to be a high quality linestage, but certainly not better than the CAT. I will admit that the CAT is quite heavy in the bass and the First Sound doesn't have that. The First Sound throws a very wide soundstage, slightly wider than the CAT's, but the CAT has a deeper one. The First Sound is actually brighter than the CAT, for which I do not fault it. I do fault it that a hard struck high register piano note sounds a little brittle. This never happens on my CAT. As I have had the First Sound for only a month or two, and haven't yet done the experimentation with tube rolling and changes in interconnects although I am currently using NOS Telefunken 7308's in it, I am willing to admit that I haven't yet extracted the best from the First Sound, but I don't understand Kalan's complaints about the CAT apart from gain, line output and sensitivity issues. Although tube rolling with the CAT can make a significant difference, I have never heard it sound bright, even with the stock tubes or with NOS tubes for which it is not well suited, such as Mullard 6922's. If so, perhaps a tube change or perhaps an interconnect change is required.
Tube Preamps under $10k with deep bass extension
I'm still goofing around looking for a good tube preamp. I'd like to hear from those who have auditioned some tube preamps on systems capable of 20hz. I auditioned a hovland HP 100 that had fantastic midrange but seemed to be missing a little bit of the lower octave. I'm new to the tube preamp arena and am unaware of which ones can make 20hz and which cannot. I've had some good responses to previous posts which have got me interested in Supratek, McIntosh, and CAT preamps. I also noticed some tube ringing at higher levels. Is this something I should expect or not?
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- 28 posts total
- 28 posts total