What is it about the Cary SLI-80?

Hello Gentlemen,

I too had a sli-80, and had no intentions of selling it. One day I had a Mcintosh 2500 power amp walked into my room. It was a friends who wanted me to sell it for him. Out of curiosity I hooked it up with some sub par speaker and power cables I had laying around. It sounded amazing, ( I had an old c-30 preamp as well) the most "real" sound I had yet to hear out of my Spendors (my then speaker) so I had no choice but to sell the Cary. But, I used that money to buy a slp-98 preamp. I owned another Cary preamp long ago, and I have always liked their sound. I think some speakers ( like my Vandersteen 3a's) might need a bit more power then what the sli-80 is capable of, or it may just be a synergy/voicing thing. If you like the Cary sound and your speakers are fairly efficient, I'm sure you'll love the sli-80. If you have been thinking about sli-80's you will definitely see more of them around. They are beautiful.

I appreciate all the responses. They are helpful. Once I owned a pair of Cary 572SE amps and they were incredible. All the hype about tubes was really true! They ended up being a major hassle, though, because of the downfall of the Svetlana 572-3 triode. I went through about 12 defective tubes in 3 months (at about the same time, Dennis Had pulled the amp off the market). I moved to an upgraded McCormack solid state amp and life was easier, but I've never forgotten the seductive sound from those tube amps. The SLI-80 seemed like a relatively painless way to get back in, so I've been giving it a lot of thought. Now I'm thinking even more!

I answered Charles by email; but thought I'd answer the thread also. To continue the drug analogy, the SLI-80 is like snorting.
The Frankensteins are like breaking out the pipe.

Since I don't snort or smoke I will keep my AES Super Amp MkII. It is sweet, musical, authoritative. The new design is cut from the same cloth as the Cary CAD-120S w/ unscale transformers not used in older Cary designed gear. This power amp is unbelievable.

Mjcmt, good for you . The bong and the Columbian Gold were left behind along with the Woodstock era. We are clean audiophile people. "Lucy and the Sky with Diamond" is a just a part of the history . Now, let's converse some more.