Cary V12 and other tubes

I just bought 2 Cary mono block V12i's and are hook up to new sophia 2's. Also a Cary slp98 preamp. Every tube is original stock. I hooked everything and to my ears was dissapointed in the sound. Lacks bass pretty bad, and sound just doesnt seem to open up as I were to hope for. Also I have to crank up the volume knob to about 3 o'clock just to get about 80db's. I have the tubes biased at 275. Am I doing something wrong? Your help is greatly needed.

Kdi40, are these amps new or used. My findings with cary Equipment, especially amplifiers, they need at least 50 hours before they even start to open up and 100 hours to really start sounding good. I know it sounds like "BS" but it is true. Also, the 275 bias point which you are set at is to high. I know the manual says 275 but Cary told me that the manual was incorrect, the the amp should be biased at 230-250ma you may be over saturating the output tubes, try backing the bias down and letting the amps break in. Hope that helps..........Bob

Thanks Bmotorcycle....I bought these used but were supposedly not used. It does sound like BS about "breaking in" but there must be some truth because you hear that alot. Good tip about the bias also, I would have never known. I'll let the system break in for a while and let you know. I'm new to he hi-fi end so this is all new to me, expecially tubes.....David

I figured out what the problem was.....my meter was inaccurate in reading the bias. My faulty meter read 275 in reality it was reading 180. With the bias now set propery....it's a different stereo, WOW, plenty of bass, and gobs of power....

I too have a Cary V12R and the bias should be about 238. I need new tubes so I'm going for a full set of Rubys. 2 AX7's and 2 el-84's. The amp just makes a loud hiss when I flip on the operate switch on the Cary SLP98P, so I must have 1 or 2 bad tubes. I have moved some of them around and it does not help. The system sounds great when it works, and the amp does run hot normally.