CAT JL2 & Pre SL1 or Atma-Sphere MA-1 & MP-1

Brian (audiogon member is EssentialAudio) has much experience with these two lines next to each other driving Soundlabs. I suggest you send him an email for what I suspect would be some valuable comparative strengths/differences of each.
John

I was hoping Brian would chime in here but I'll go ahead and give my experiences with these two product lines.

First off the preamps: I have not heard the MP1 but have wanted to for many years. The MP3 was one of the most disappointing auditions I ever had with preamps. I heard it at the ARC/Atmasphere dealer and it only sounded ok. So I borrowed it for the weekend, tried it at home and at the BAT dealer and in each case, the frequency extremes were rolled off, with no air or spaciousness at all. It was no match for the ARC LS5 or BAT 31SE as a line stage. I did not even bother with the phono capabilities.

The CAT SL series has impressed me time and time again. It is more neutral than my favorite preamps of the last 20 years. I tended to like a more warm presentation which is why I went with the ARC SP-10 and LS5/PH2, later the BAT 31SE and Aesthetix Io, but I find myself more and more drawn to the neutrality of such products like the CAT SL1. There's an openness of this product that is quite impressive.

The amps comparison is quite different. For the few hours I was able to hear the MA1 vs. JL2, there were big differences. Unfortunately the MA1s were new and clearly not "broken in" but they had a lush smooth richness that was so very very nice. To say I was impressed by the musicality of these amps would be an understatement. And they had just a little bit of that lower midrange warmth that added body and dimensionality to the music.

I would have to disagree with Rushton on the issue of the Atmaspheres and added no warmth. When you hear it aside the CAT, the CAT is clearly more tonally flat. But keep in mind, I tend to like a little bit of this warmth quality as it can be addicting and involving and this was what drew me to the MA1s. They were a great match with the Soundlabs.

Rushton writes that the Atmaspheres have a quickness. I would agree with this until I heard the CAT play the same music seconds later on the same system. There is an attack on each note and gnat's hair resolution with the CAT that allows for detail to come through. This was so evident with intricate acoustic guitar playing. I could much greater appreciate the talents of the musician and the sheer speed of the fingerwork through the guitar strings with the CAT. This was NOT subtle. I would label this as a quickness quality.

For me, the CAT excelled in areas of dynamics and resolution and had a more neutral tonality. When you hear dynamic contrasts like this amp can do, you pause and sit at attention.

There is no clear winner here as both of these amps are exceptional products. What I wanted was an amp that had qualities of each of these products .... I liked them both that much. It comes down to personal preference AND ultimately the match with the speakers you own. The CATs are made to drive virtually anything out there whereas the Atmaspheres need to be more carefully matched.

You really need to hear these for yourself.

John

Pubul: I'm not sure I would agree with the "tonal correction" process through cables. Someone who buys the CAT gear is doing this to a large degree on the product's incredible dynamics and resolution. So many cables that may add warmth to the tonality, e.g. Cardas, may not do a very good job to preserve these capabilites of the CAT. Tonality is only one of many sonic characterizations here. Why pay so much for such a strength only to see it lost through bandaid cables? I would focus to find electronics that have the menu of priorities that I like and then find a cable which best allows those products to show their strengths.

I have been a warmth fanatic for many years but as my system has improved, my emphasis has shifted to resolution and more so, to neutrality. You just can't have it both ways. If it were not for the CAT's awesome dynamic strengths, I probably would have gone with the Atmaspheres as they are about as close as it gets to having the best of both worlds (a little midrange warmth but otherwise neutral and good resolution).

With all this said, if you want to play with cables here, I have found the NBS classic series, the Statement, Pro, Master, etc., to have that little bit of warmth emphasis but have resolution far far beyond the Cardas. But what these cables really do so well is preserve the harmonic richness like no other cable I have heard. I have found the top priced MIT cables to have more resolution in the highest frequencies but have less presence in the mids. So yes, you can juggle cables a little bit for fine tuning, but this is not something I would do as a primary task to assemble an audio system. And again, I think it's mighty tough to have it all.

John

Rushton: I too was very surprised and disappointed in the MP3 I borrowed for a weekend. After reading nothing but the greatest praise of their amps for many many years, I had a lot of excitement to finally get a chance to hear this preamp....and in 3 systems with at least one other preamp to directly compare to each time. Even the BAT salesman was quite disappointed at this as he too had very high expectations of the MP3 but the VK31SE just destroyed it when he put on the Miles Davis "Kind of Blue". And my ARC LS5 III could not compete with the BAT that day either. What a wake-up call for me!

As for the amps, keep in mind that my comments were a direct comparison to the CAT JL-2. Had I heard both in separate systems, I would not have been able to identify (quantify) the unique qualities of each. Both amps were truly exceptional and eclipsed my aged Wolcotts by a huge margin.

The warmth of the MA1s with the Soundlab U1s was immediately noticeable.....and I loved it. But compared to the CAT, the MA1 was a wee bit off neutral. And like I have noted here before, this is a quality that I like so I have nothing negative to comment on this concerning the MA1s. It was simply a noted sonic difference.

The one thing that the CATs get a lot of credit for is in the bass. However, I felt the bass in the MA1s was as extended and authoritative as the CAT. But there was clearly a level difference between the two amps with the U1s. The JL-2 sounded a bit lean in the bass after listening to the MA1s but an adjustment on the U1s would bring this back into balance. I think the U1s' bass were dialed in for the MA1s and thus this difference. But both amps handled the low end incredibly well. Like I said, I was big time impressed.

Unless we do such listening comparisons right then and there, it is tough or darn near impossible to make such absolute statements about A vs. B. But it was there.

Not much has been shared here on the CAT amps but one other member, 90493m, put a lot of effort to describe his feelings on the CAT amp and he too uses many comparative comments on the Atmas as well. I can relate so very much to his comments in the context of that one afternoon listening session I had between these two products.

John