Cary sound?

There is a saying about a specific brand of tube products regarding their "air", "liquidity", "musicality" and "depth of soundstage". It is called "Cary Magic" and not without good reason.

Having said that, i've always found Cary products to be noticeably "tubey" sounding i.e. warm and romantic. If that is the sound you like and are after, i don't think that you could go wrong with Cary gear. Sean
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Lorne: Still offering the $2,000 for a Beatles reunion on SNL? Now that it doesn't have to be split quite so many ways, I think we might be persuaded...

Luv, Ringo

P.S. - Who are these 'Carys' chaps?

I am using the Cary 572SE's which use the Svetlana SV-572. They claim 20wpc but sound much more powerful. I really enjoy the sound of them. I have had all sorts of amps from ARC, Kora, Aronov, BAT, etc.. I think these have a similar sound to the BAT VK60 but maybe a bit warmer with better bass. Finding a preamp that matches is the harder part. I tried the AES/Cary AES-3 which is 6SN7 based and it had a lot of air but lacked something in the low end. I then tried the Cary SLP-50 which had better bass but lacked the open sound of the AES-3. The AES-3 was highly tweaked. I am now using an Audio Research LS-3 which is solid state and it very sweet sounding. I may have found a match.

One thing to mention is that the SV-572 tube is becoming more scarce. I stockpiled a bunch of them and I think that New Sensor has the rest. The 572SE amps can be modified by Cary to accept the 300B for approx. $750 including a set of Electro Harmonix 300B's. Sorry for all the history. The bottom line is that the Cary's have a nice sound.

I have an SLI50 integrated and it is dead quiet first of all. Sound emanates from a black silence that is crystal clear and it possesses excellent dynamics both micro and macro. You hear all the detail with no harshness or spot-lighting. It has excellent extension on the top end and a solid bass. It does have a tube sound in that leading edges of notes are slightly rounded off. I will never sell this amp. It is a lifetime keeper for me. This unit is five years old and I have replaced the output tubes only and just replaced the power switch which failed (autopsy revealed burnt contacts) which is not an easy job plus a new selector switch (it was getting noisy). The parts and build quality appear excellent except the switches I replaced. They were inexpensive (8.75) and looked that way. However, they do have a nice feel when in use. I would purchase another Cary product if the right piece came along. I do use a competing brand (VAC) in my big system because they fit my requirements in that system. The VAC gear is more expensive. My SLI50 is the best value.