Does Cary stack up to ARC

Kettle, I have used ARC products for the last 15+ years, products include: Amps; D115, D125, Classic 60, V70, VT130, preamps; SP10, SP15, LS5, LS15, some of which I wish I had back (SP10). All of Audio Research products are great, HOWEVER, I just bought a Cary V12 power amp last July and as stated by Sean, the sound stage (both width and depth) and the air between artist amazing, almost like magic. The ARC amps do have better controle of bass and are a little brighter in the top end. The Cary excels in the midrange. Again like Sean says, a very warmer presentation, exactly to my liking. A female vocal truly does sound like she is in the room, don't know how that is acheived but again like magic. I havn't owned any of the other Cary products, but everything I have read seems to come to the same conclusion, good luck.......Bob

I cannot comment on Cary but I owned ARC VT100MKII and LS16 and found them both to be outstanding but not quite the sound that I prefer. I like a warmer sound and for that reason I kept my CJ Premier 11a amp which I'm presently driving with a passive/buffered preamp. I'm really tempted to try out some Cary tube gear.

kettle

your setup sounds good

you should have tried some tube rolling with the ls15

I had an ls2 and recently went to an LS5 which has all the revealing arc qualities but is also warm and very involving

I have heard great things about the cary and if it simplifys the setup, great

tom

Tom, I probably should have tried some tube rolling in my ARC LS16 too. I was using it with the stock Sovtek 6922 tubes. It wasn't bad at all and it had all the qualities I like in a tube preamp except it could have been a little more extended covering the frequency extremes and just a tad bit warmer in the mids. But thats just my preference. Others might consider this unnatural or even criminal. ;-)

As it turns out, my used Conrad-Johnson PF-R solid-state preamp arrived today while I was at work (so I had to come home early. Its Friday, after all!) I placed the CJ PF-R in my system only 30-minutes ago and so far I REALLY like what I'm hearing. Sure, its solid-state but it has that "CJ family sound" that matches very well with my CJ Premier 11a. Back to the sofa for some critical listening.

It's possible, even probable that you would prefer the Cary sound, but the question is whether the SLI-80 is high enough on the quality ladder to satisfy you. These seem to show up fairly often and sell fairly quickly, so trying one out used would not be a huge risk.

I've wanted to downgrade to an integrated for some time now, and recently tried a Stereophile "class A" integrated in my home. On it's own terms it was great, but my CJ Premier 12's with Audible Illusions M3a just stomped it. I ultimately decided I'd rather have a few more components lying around and get great sound.

Art