Best Pre-amp under 7k

Get a CAT SL-1 Ultimate. It is the best preamp at $5950 or below (or above insofar as I have heard). If you like detail, well you'll get it, but not the screeching brightness that passes for detail with some other preamps. The mids are absolutely liquid, transparent, smooth and musical. There is no harshness brightness or grain anywhere. It has got superb dynamics, great 3D soundstage and great, great bass extension. It is a tube preamplifier that lets you have your cake and eat it too. It is absolutely dead quiet, and it has a world class phono section which rates with the best of the outboard phono preamps. Everything that the Hovland does very well, the CAT does significantly better, except I can see where one could rate the extreme highs of the Hovland over the CAT. I have a/b'ed CAT's vs. Lamm's (Lamm lost. Not nearly as musical), CAT vs. Hovland (Hovland loses. Seriously rolled off in deep bass. Not as dynamic as CAT.). I must admit to not having heard all of the previous preamps, like Thor and First Sound, but based purely on its sonic capabilities, I almost don't know how you could ask more of a preamplifier. If you don't believe me, check out the April May 2000 Absolute Sound, where Larry Alan Kay declares it his "first choice in preamps" or look at the August 1999 Stereophile where Robert Deutsch recommends putting the CAT Ultimate at the top of your short list. Your personal taste may lead you elsewhere, but I believe it would be a serious mistake to fail to audition this product.

I'll just say to the previous person posting that the Ultimate is not an upgrade product. That is, you cannot update any previous CAT preamp to the Ultimate. You have to go out and put down your $5950 to get one. So I guess that would qualify it to be considered a separate product from any of the previous CAT's, and that would make CAT no different from any of the manufacturers which Mr. Cardinal reveres, in the sense all they did is put out a new product. That said, I think there have been 5 or 6 CAT preamplifiers in the 15 or 16 years that CAT has been making them. With most of them, there was an upgrade path. I have heard several different models and they are all fine products in their own right and can hold their own with any of the top products today. I'll leave it to others to determine if those are too many upgrades in the last 16 years.

Snook2, Please state in detail why you believe the Aloia is a step up from the CAT. What does the Aloia do which the CAT can't. Or, what does the CAT do wrongly which the Aloia doesn't do? I want to know because I have seen other posts which, I believe, you have written which say the same thing and I want to know why I should go out and listen to this product. I am certainly open to the idea that there are better preamps out there than the CAT since I am trying to find one for a second system, but tell me why the Aloia is better!

Avguygeorge,

I certainly agree that the used way is the way to go. I was lucky enough to find my Ultimate on Audiogon almost two years ago for $3400. As far as buying old CATs and upgrading them, these old CATs are something special in their own right and can be a screaming bargain when considering them at their used prices. Some people prefer them to the newer models, so listen first before you upgrade. Just remember that you cannot upgrade to the Ultimate.

Thanks guys,

Ray Hall

Thanks, Snook2. I didn't think you were bashing CAT. I tried to take pains to make sure that you wouldn't think that I did think you were bashing it. I had just heard you speak about the Aloia before, and I wanted to know what made it so good. Thanks again. I'll go listen to it.

They don't have one.