CAT. Low Profile. High Quality!  

Convergent Audio Technology's low profile belies the state-of-the-art sonic performance of its products, which are the outgrowth of the energy and astute hearing of Ken Stevens. I've now heard three of Ken's products -- he currently makes only four -- and each has impressed me with the way it gets the best out of its tube-based circuits while displaying none of the drawbacks that lesser products can and do. I raved about the SL1 Ultimate Mk 2 preamp and JL2 Signature Mk 2 amp, but the SL1 Legend goes beyond them, not only in its execution but in its performance as well. There is honesty, beauty and authority in the Legend's sound, and seemingly in equal parts. Yet, as Ken Stevens espouses, it's the cumulative effect of a lot of things that makes the Legend what it is.

Given its many and varied strengths, the CAT SL1 Legend is the finest preamp I've had in my system. If it takes years of tinkering to produce a preamp like this one, so be it. Greatness, as they say, can't be rushed.

...Marc Mickelson