www.h-cat.com is the web site.
TGB (norm) is making some bold claims here, and I'm about to find out what this line stage is capable of (hopefully in the next few days.)
I think Norm's enthusiasm and insistance on H-cat being tops is that it is utterly novel in the way it processes signals. From my limited understanding, it seems almost all analog preamps, tube or solid stage, do a very similar thing- and in fact attempt to have as little character as possible.
The H-cat, on the other hand is saying- hey- your input signal is completely flawled and I must utterly alter it to recreate the original waveform.
I recently told a recording engineer I was getting 2 new "voodoo" products - the H-cat and Acoustic Resonators, figuring he'd kind of chuckle at my "non-science" audiophile products. He retorted that losts of pro gear falls into the voodoo catagory.
I'll be comparing the the H-cat to no preamp at all - I have a GCPH phono stage I run balanced directly into MA1's and eventually can try the H-cat going into my modified integrated GCC amp- with also has no line stage, so I think I can really get a handle on what this unit is doing rather than just comparing it to another line stage.
Hopefully next week I"ll be able to either deify Norm to prophet status, or demand he resign his Audiogon account!!
(I'm kidding Norm)
TGB (norm) is making some bold claims here, and I'm about to find out what this line stage is capable of (hopefully in the next few days.)
I think Norm's enthusiasm and insistance on H-cat being tops is that it is utterly novel in the way it processes signals. From my limited understanding, it seems almost all analog preamps, tube or solid stage, do a very similar thing- and in fact attempt to have as little character as possible.
The H-cat, on the other hand is saying- hey- your input signal is completely flawled and I must utterly alter it to recreate the original waveform.
I recently told a recording engineer I was getting 2 new "voodoo" products - the H-cat and Acoustic Resonators, figuring he'd kind of chuckle at my "non-science" audiophile products. He retorted that losts of pro gear falls into the voodoo catagory.
I'll be comparing the the H-cat to no preamp at all - I have a GCPH phono stage I run balanced directly into MA1's and eventually can try the H-cat going into my modified integrated GCC amp- with also has no line stage, so I think I can really get a handle on what this unit is doing rather than just comparing it to another line stage.
Hopefully next week I"ll be able to either deify Norm to prophet status, or demand he resign his Audiogon account!!
(I'm kidding Norm)