Transistor Preamp that sounds like a Tube Preamp?

Ass, I am sure no one, myself included, who knows what the hell you are talking about.

Inarticulateness in communicating is a measure of education.

I would recommend the H-Cat P-12R X7 which meets your requirements but doesn't sound like tubes either.

Missioncoonery, I might ask why buy a preamp that sounds like either a tube or ss preamp. Until 5 years ago, I hated all ss preamps as well as passive preamps, with but one exception. Then I got my first H-Cat linestage. Now I have neither.

Dumb posting.

Saxo, I thought I did.

Asa, me thinks you protest to much. It is you who posted a singularly non-communicative post and followed that with deliberately misspelling my moniker to Tbag and the hobgoblin comment. When you learn to communicate more clearly and less offensively, you can take exception to others' responses.

I merely suggested that IMHO the H-Cat achieves what heretofore I had not heard in a SS linestage.

You will receive no telephone call from me, especially as I have just learned that you can construct a logical argument from your personal experiences.

Saxo and Mrtennis, I guess I have to endure a lawyer's closing. I regret leaving his initial, non-communicative post from just passing into oblivion.

Gregm, I have owned the Levinson, Cello Suite and "palette," and Accuphase 280 line stages, but of course, long ago. The Cello stands out as exceptional among them. I had gone quite crazy and bought the full Cello system, including the amps and equalizer connected by miles of Cello Strings. It was the ease and total confusion associated with an equalizer sitting there beside me to change at my whim that ultimately got me. I had to sell the entire system rather than the equalizer that was all I really wanted to sell. If Saxo could find a used Cello Suite, he would no doubt love it.

Apart from the Cello, I think you are wrong about no advancements in circuit designs. I have already noted this, however. Tube circuits have also advanced thanks to better parts and power supplies. The new Exemplar fully regulated design struck me as exceptional at the RMAF. I am anxious to try one soon. It is a $11,000 unit, however.

Asa, please tell us what "Answer ten years ago: No. Answer five years ago: No. Answer today: No." means. I had no idea. I now see that you are dredging up another thread in which the discussion has gotten much more constructive. Why would you find it constructive to bring it up here?

It is you, sir, who shows no manners, as others seem to have also noted. It is symptomatic of your obliviousness to what you say that you think you are entitled to an apology.

I am sorry that I can afford equipment which you cannot and that it sticks in your craw, but the H-Cat certainly doesn't fall in that category. Please don't ever listen to an H-Cat since you show a bias that might result in you having heart failure.

Asa, you continue to ignore the malice in your initial post and those following and frankly I regret having ever asked what you meant in your post, as it obviously was irrelevant.

Saxo, I still would recommend that you give the H-Cat a listen if you have one nearby. I am sorry that I didn't just ignore Asa's initial post.

Asa and I had a very good conversation by telephone. We talked about how discussions on the internet escalate beyond what either party intended. We both apologized and all is well.

Asa, I think that some have learned how to better use transistors and other parts have greatly improved. Certainly, I would agree with gregm's thought that we have seen a great improvement in isolating components, which has cost me dearly as I think the Halcyonic active isolation base because I have found it is clearly superior, in getting ac power to components, and certainly in the quality of parts, wire, boards, power supply, and even jacks used.

Based on what I have heard, I believe that Roger Paul's H-Cat circuitry must be an innovative circuit. I say must be as everything is potted in modules. I would not claim to have much more than a rudimentary understanding of how his Doppler sensors work, but I do know they have proven quite sensitive to external influences. Many of the recent updates have been directed toward better isolating them from emi.

Again, I cannot speak of the circuit itself, and merely meant to suggest that the H-Cat should be heard, not that this is easy to do. My system is always available when I am not traveling and if you can find your way to College Station, Texas, which is about 100 miles north of Houston. The proof is in the pudding.

Fiddler, I don't exactly see a love fest, but given the way the H-Cat fell into name calling, I do think both of us went to some excess given the impersonality of the internet. I have noticed that some of your other posts are quite constructive and I suspect you have found the same of mine. I am independently sending you my telephone number.

Pubul57, I have had five different passives--the placette passive, the Reference, the Tokyo pot, the Silver Rock, and the Top Dog. This is over quite a time span so many different systems were involved. In each case I have heard the purity of the unamplified sound, but I have also heard the loss of pace or dynamics to the music; it became boring and uninvolving. I am aware that one really does need to adapt your system for passive units, but the promise never seemed worth the effort.

I have had a checkered history also with tube line stages, with some just so slow and bloated that you could hardly listen and that I am sure are the experiences for some who hate tuby linestages. But at least they were not hard on the ears in the high frequencies. I remember my first ss preamp was the Crown IC150. You could use music to engrave glass coffee tables with it. An Trevor Lees modified Dyna PAS 3 blew it away and resulted in a long history with tube line stages, with occasional ventures into ss, such as with the Cello and Krell Reference.

Before the H-cat I never had a line stage for longer than a year.

I generally agree with what "tube-like" means, and it is not a favorable idea. I once had Western Electric 91B amps. They were rolled off beginning at 13k and had little bass below 50 Hz. This is not to say that I have never heard a tube amp that did not sound "tube-like."

Similarly, I generally agree that there is a solid-state sound. It use to be quite common in transistor gear, but there have always been exceptions to this in solid state gear. The solid state sound is graininess and harshness, most evident in the high end.

I don't think these distinctions get us very far, as many solid state components don't sound solid state and many tube components don't sound "tube-like." Nevertheless, in my experience there is a pretty strong relationship for tube gear to be "tube-like" and solid state gear to sound edgy. Fortunately, there are exceptions.

I have problems with characterizing sound as "musical' versus "analytical" also. Musical is not necessarily a good thing in my mind. Many say we cannot achieve realism and should be happy if our system gives us an emotional or satisfying musical presentation. I know that you can achieve the magic of realism, and I will not be satisfied with just "musical." Realism is not "analytical" either. Usually, I have found that "analytical" is an error in optimizing the system, such as the wrong VTA, poor isolation, or bad cabling.

There are some who hate silver interconnects as too bright. I generally prefer silver interconnects but have also heard great sounding copper interconnects. I tend to not like gold interconnects, platinum interconnects, and amorphous metal interconnects, such as the Indra, but I resist generalization here also.

It really comes down to what you hear and what you hope to hear. Finally, I am always quite aware that there is little or not consensus on any topic or component. It is quite obvious that tastes differ greatly. At it root this suggests that there really is little purpose for Audiogon other than to report personal experiences. Certainly, I have much experience with reporting my personal experiences only to have others tell me that I am delusional as what I hear is impossible. Right now I have been involved in commenting on the benefits of Walker Audio Step Four in cleaning records. I hear a great improvement over the previous three step cleaning. Some say that is impossible as pure water cannot be improved on. Observations have always had greater credence to me than theory. I will keep using Step Four and allow the doubters to not hear as good a sound as they might.

Asa, Shindo Latours! I knew there was something I liked about you. I would buy them in a flash, if I could afford them.

Mapman, from what I have heard, you will be sorry, but yes, they are too expensive for me.

Mapman, check out Tone Audio. They import both Shindo and Auditorium. I had the transformer.