CAT SL1 - is there enough GAIN using 0.4mV mc??

I am using a Koetsu Urushi wiht my CAT Ultimate pre with more than ample gain as the cart is .50mv....the cat pre-amps are absolutely some of the best ive heard!

It might depend a little on what amp you intend to use with the CAT but in my system a step-up is needed to bring out the best in the 0.6 mV Koetsus. You might not know what you're missing until you try one.

WOW...the vote is pretty much EVEN for my query. i appreciate ALL your responses and will TRY it without a step-up and post my results. now...who wants to sell their CAT??

Hi Spencer,

Good to read that you have the CAT up & running & that you are enjoying it & that you consider it an improvement from your prev. preamp. Whew! I don't feel so bad recommending this pre to you then! :-)
Thanks for the compliments, BTW.
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Hi All,

Now, re. the CAT sound w/o a step-up: I can only speak w.r.t. to my system & room. I found that I had enough bass for Jazz music. However, the bass was lacking for both Rock & Blues music. Bwtn these 2 genres, it was missing more on Blues music. Bass is an integral part of Blues & if the slam factor is on the low side, Blues just sound right. That's how it felt in my room.
BTW, w/o a step-up I had to open the vol control to 10 o'clock to get half-way decent volume. 12 o'clock was well over 90dB SPL loud. I was beginning to get happy about this 'cuz volume controls sound their best when set between 12 o'clock & 3 o'clock. It is a myth that one should not open up the volume control! In fact, the more open it is, the better the sound.
However, in my case it didn't work out. I got the volume but as a friend put it I had "no bass heft". The tube rush got louder too. Couldn't hear it from my seated position but I could hear it as I approached the speakers.
BTW did you all ever notice that MC stand-alone phono stages come with 60dB gain while stand-alone MM phono stages come with 40dB gain? The CAT phono stage has 47dB gain & by adding 14dB thru the step-up, I no have 61dB.
Also, from the CAT phono spec: the input sens. is 0.12mV. So, 0.4mV is nearly 4X higher than min. sensitivity. It's good but I have found that to get a really good signal:noise in a real-world setting one needs to be 10X above the min. sensitivity.
Like Kleech put it: try it with & without one to find out what you are missing.

Should have edited my post before posting but I hit the wrong key!

Correction: I meant to say that Blues does NOT sound right if the bass slam is missing.
(might be obvious but all-the-same).