Cary 805 vs v12

George, I am not disputing the fact that the Cary was original designed around the 805 tube, but it never went into retail production with the 805 tube. The first retail version was offered with the 211 tube. Perhaps you saw the prototype? In any event, it's a great amp.

There's one pair in Australia with 805 tubes, maybe it was modded to take them? owned by Robert ? the guy who bought the Eichmann cable and bullet plugs rights from Eichmann then on sold it. Maybe it was the prototype who knows?

Cheers George

More info delving into the history of this fine? tube amp, I found this quote from Sam Tellig this time when he talked to Dennis Had of Cary.

"The original CAD-805 had four tubes—three in the signal path. Starting as the signal came in, a single 6SL7 dual-triode input tube provided voltage gain. This was coupled to the control grid of an EL34 pentode tube wired as a triode. The EL34 produced about 4W of audio power to drive the control grid of the 805 or 211 via an interstage transformer"

Chees George

After all the hype back then on these, I decided to make my own pair of monoblocks way back then, at back breaking 35kg each even with aluminium chassis, also feedback adjustable, and very high quality transformers, power, output, chokes, and interstage.

They consisted of 13d3 Birmar input tube (same Audionote used in their top preamp) then a 12BH7 strapped RCA blackplate driving a Sylvania 300B which then drove the interstage transformer which drove the 805 RCA black plate tube.
These just drove the ESL section of the Martin Logan Monolith III's It was nice even good, they lasted about 6mths before I sold them. I may still have the circuit diagram on an old backup HD somewhere if anyone wants to make a pair, mind you these are lethal!!!!!

Cheers George

I have owned the 805's (two different pairs and vintages), the V12's, and the SixPacs outfitted with upgraded parts. And quite a number of other Cary amps to boot. :) "Sbank" offered some really sound (ugh) advice on the 805's -- they are NOT a good match for your speakers. Please don't infer that I'm bashing the 805's. Anything but, as they will likely go down in history as some of the best sounding amps of all time. BUT...they must be mated with a speaker load they can handle, and 87 dB sensitivity is too low. They need at least a 93 dB (preferably higher), and they need a fairly benign impedance load in the 8+ ohm range.

The V-12 would be a nice step up from the SixPacs, and won't put out any more heat (same total # of tubes). But before that, have you tried rolling any tubes? You didn't mention what brand of output tubes you're running. My favorite current production tube in the Six's was the Electro Harmonix EL-34, and my favorite NOS tubes were the GEC KT-66's. The latter are a bit price prohibitive right now, but the difference in sound over the EH's was substantial. I haven't tried any of the new manufacture GEC's, but they may be worth a look.