Power Amp To Go With Cary SLP98P Preamp

dylanfan,
I paired my Cary SLP-98 tube preamplifier with the following amplifiers, successfully:

Quicksilver Mono 120 (my current monoblock tube amps)
Cary V12R (stereo tube amp)
Cary SA-200.2 (stereo solid state amp)
Inspire Hot Rod (stereo tube amp)

All combinations sounded nice for their perspective power ranges and related speakers used. My feedback is not from specs, from real use.

re: Pass Labs. Nelson indicated to me a year ago he has several customers running the SLP-98 tube preamps with his .5 and .8 version PASS amps. He indicated this is a popular combo as well, fwiw.

The SLP-98 preamp combo with the Cary SA-200.2 was very nice, smooth, dynamic, nice sound stage, plenty of power. With the right Interconnects, it was a nice combination for solid state in my setup.

With your Ryan 630 speakers and Nomex drivers (I’ve built something similar), you could pair them up with a nice Rel subwoofer for added bottom end and spend your money on a "musical" amplifier, tube or solid state. I’d guess you are searching for something more, what?

A few come to mind:
Tube: Quicksilver Mono 60s (tube), Quicksilver Mono 120s (tube)
SS: Cary SA-200.2, Pass X30.8, PASS X60.8, Van Alstine FET 400, Parasound JC5, PS Audio BHK 250.

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Your preamp is sensitive to tube, cap, and interconnect changes.

Two questions:
-What brand (new or NOS) tubes are installed in your SLP98 now?
-What do you not like about the Primaluna Dialogue 5 pairing now?

I thanks for all the info guys! I like my Dialog 5 Power amp with the Cary Preamp. To me it sounds great. I have just heard the synergy of a Cary Preamp with a Cary amplifier would be a logical move. Cary has a 30% off 30th anniversary sale so I thought it would be a good time to give it a try. I had the moving coil phono option added along with every upgrade and better tubes. Trying to simplify and getting ready to retire in a year or so so I thought I would put together a good system before I have to cut back. I really like the tube sound. Heard nothing but great things about Pass Labs and even though not tubes it might be a great option. I can live with any of the equipment I have but always looking for a little better.

A further thought regarding the XA30.8: Given the small size of your present room, depending on how well it is air-conditioned the heat that would be introduced by the 400 watt AC power consumption of the XA30.8 may be an issue. The XA25 I use may be preferable in that regard, as its specified power consumption is only 240 watts, while according to Stereophile’s measurements it can nevertheless supply 80 and 130 watts into 8 and 4 ohms respectively.

Your PrimaLuna amp has a specified power consumption of 232 watts, but I believe it is biased to operate in class AB, while the two Pass amps operate in class A aside from occasional instances when high volume dynamic peaks in the music may cause them to transition to AB. Consequently your PrimaLuna amp is probably consuming significantly less than 232 watts most of the time, depending on the dynamics of the music, while the two Pass amps consume essentially the same amount of power (400 watts and 240 watts, respectively) most of the time.  And the amount of heat introduced into the room will be proportional to those power consumption numbers.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Thanks for taking all the time Al to help me. That was my concern with the Cary tube amp and the Pass Labs amp and why are was considering the solid state Cary amp. The room is small and in the summer it gets pretty hot in Oklahoma. The smaller Pass amp is a good call. Thank you!

@dylanfan 

The little XA25 amp is pretty sweet too.  A few buddies with Cary tube amps also have the XA25 and flip back and forth for variety.  If your Ryan speakers are truly 85db, something else to consider about efficiency - depending how loud you turn it up for in-room our outside-of-room listening.   In a small room, and lower listening levels it might be okay. I can say the SA-200.2 I had before did not run that warm and does run in  Class A mode in lower wattage.  I don't recall the limits. Plan on buying some better copper interconnect cables with these SS amps IF you like a softer sound, particularly if you are running brighter tubes in your SLP-98 preamp.