Cary 805 AE-do they go low?

They have a questionable "magic" to the mid-range, but I believe that’s highlighted at an expense of the bass which is a little bloated and which adds body to the lower mids. And the highs are not as immediate because of the diminished extension and harmonics which gives a perceived smoother upper mid especially on some not so well recorded female vocals.

What I can say with all the tubes I’ve had Se or PP, I eventually try to improve them with circuit changes/mods, and the better I made them with these changes the closer they got to really good linear solid state amps with plenty of Class-A bias.

My hypothetical tube amp that would maybe blow my socks off would be an OTL that can give the current of a Krell ect, and drive any load down to 2ohms staying flat without becoming a tone control..

Cheers George

I currently run McIntosh MC 60s, and softness in the bass, given the potential of the down firing subs in the Definitions is like leaving part of the main course on the table. These speakers don't need the power of the amps to produce the bass, but do need the frequency range at the bottom to not be rolled off.
 
Reaching the sweet spot in regards to amplification will be important, obviously. With all the options available it has become a quest. Been considering this for a while and what conclusion I've come to is that you really have to make compromises. My barometer for satisfying musical enjoyment can be measured in terms of listener fatigue. The Zus can use a bit of warmth, and with a  change as big as amplifier change, would like to hit the sweet spot. 

but do need the frequency range at the bottom to not be rolled off.

Frequency range down low and control at those frequencies are two different things that an amp has to have. Just because an amp goes low, doesn’t mean it has control.

Control in the low bass with speakers that have low impedance and high negative phase angles at those frequencies, means an amp that not only goes low in frequency, but one that has to have good wattage, high current ability, and low output impedance/high damping factor, as to keep the bass drivers cone under control.
Some Class-D’s excel in this department, but to me that’s where it stops with them, for now. Maybe in the future when technology catches up and the switching frequency triples, they will be as good if not better in the other areas as well.

Cheers George

BTW, much appreciated info here. The Zus have a class D Hypex amp driving a 12" subwoofer, signal taken off the mains. So the signal and it's effectiveness at juicing the Hypex should depend on the linearity of the Carys and not so much on the their ability to control or move air. If I'm mistaken here or missing something. The impedance doesn't drop below 6 Ohms along the FR curve. I can't find damping factor info about the Cary.

I can't find damping factor info about the Cary.

Damping factor at 8ohms is a product of output impedance.

In table one the output impedance at 20hz is at best .51ohm  from the 4ohm tap which equates to a damping factor of 15.6 which is not great.
But you can see in the frequency response graphs that anything below 100hz and it's a tone control rolling off severely, and also above 10khz peaking badly, showing either poor transformer design and stability problems.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/cary-audio-design-cad-805-monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements

Cheers George