Cary SLI-80 vs Manley Stingray

I own the Cary and have limited exposure to the Manley unit. I'd say that you nailed it except that the Cary bass does go quite deep, perhaps deeper than the Stingray, but bass control is where the Cary is less than stellar. I'd rather have the Manley for rock and roll, otherwise the Cary.

FWIW I drove Maggie 1.6s successfully with a Manley Stingray. I agree it did have a vibrant and punchy quality with this difficult load. It had beautiful tone as well.

Haven't heard the Stingray, but I have heard the Cary SLI-80 driving Aerials and Spendors. It is a wondeful sounding piece that I would buy in a skinny minute.

I auditioned the Manley on Maggie 1.6's and loved what I heard. Tonal quality that is outstanding. Ultimately, I paired them with a pair of Usher 6371's and they are indeed punchy and dynamic. Bass control is excellent and deep. Now all of the qualities of soundstage and image size are relative to your tube selection, power cords,and Ic's as well as your other component choices and how they present the sound.

The Stingray seems to handle most music well from Rock to Classical. If you can roll tubes it responds very well to upgrades. I am using Siemens 3X mica 60's vintage E81CC/12AT7 and Ei El-84's with GE 6414 driver tubes. Ive received a recommendation to go with Tesla-Roznov old stock 60's which are replicas of Telefunkin round plates(not JJ or Teslovak) which cant be beat even by the Mullards. The Mullards will set you back almost 2K for a 8 matched..the Tesla's can be had for $25.00 a pop. Big difference. I will try this before too long. Hope this helps. Cant offer any experience with the Cary however.

Regarding the Cary and bass, wouldn't you be able to add a powered sub via the Cary's sub-out?