The mighty CAT preamp

That's very interesting Spectron. I personally have not had to re-tube that often, in fact I have had my current tube set about two years and all still seems fine. I do agree that at certain gain levels the CAT is not dead quiet, some slight tube hiss is audible when nothing is playing. OTOH, I was amazed at the improvement that was had when I changed from the 'stock' tubes to the current NOS GE Smooth plates.
What other components are you using with the Joule and are they the same as when you had the CAT?

"What other components are you using with the Joule and are they the same as when you had the CAT? "

With CAT I used Equilibre, tube amp from Audio Matiere (now, I believe its Audio Aero) and I also used the Spectron Musician III (standard) stereo amplifier. I owned different CATs for about 15 years, indeed mighty cat and difficult to think that can be any better....

With Joule-Electra I use only Spectron amplifiers - monoblocks with all upgardes.

Best Regards
Simon

My ex-wife had a cat,I replaced both of them with a dog.

Tpreaves, was that an upgrade? Sounds like a lateral move to me..:0)

Daveyf, You obviously haven't been there before!