Cary Audio CAD-280SA V12R

I rarely ran mine in 100wpc ultralinear mode also . The nice part is you could switch between UL mode and triode mode on the fly , even with music playing . Running only two tubes per channel ( about 17 wpc ) was very sweet if your speakers were efficient enough for the low power . Mine was a stock V12R in that beautiful red paint . I made a meter to plug into the back to adjust the bias but found out the red indicator lights next to each tube was accurate enough . I really miss that amp but now have Bottle Head 300b monoblocks , First Watt F6 , Conrad Johnson Classic 60 and a pair of Nelson Pass 6 wpc monoblocks that I built myself . I only need about 8 wpc to drive my Tekton Enzo 2.7's . Let us know what you do but that Cary kicks butt .   

BTW.... mine sounded better in single ended . My Cary SLP-05 pre amp / Ayon 2s player combo sounds better single ended also , go figure .  

Had the I version and now have the R version. Really nice amp, and as the other  posters noted, quite a few upgrades.

should be also noted that the first input tube has regulation on plate voltages, so you can pop out 12AZ7 and replace with 12AT7 or similar without rebiasing the socket. I have found that driver tube EL84 type and brand makes a huge difference on the tonal quality of the amp.

and the amp will run 6L6GCs up to KT88s. my favorite tube for this amp is the shuguang Western electric Plus 6CA7 fat bottles. A magical sounding tube.

there was also a monoblock version of the V-12 for over 200 watts per side, but they do not come up for sale very often.

I have one and am extremely happy with it. It's got Ruby EL34's and Generex Gold Lions for the front end.  That's the place where tube rolling gets interesting.
I'm an older guitar player and changing input tubes was the way to find how to get an amp to talk.
On the other hand, I just want to hear everything as I imagine the recording attempted to be.
I like the amp enough, I've looked at buying a spare. 

I used to own both amps. I owned the V12i for a short while - one of my first purchases on Audiogon - and traded it in for a new V12R. What I remember most is the beautiful tone and the surprising low end grunt that both amps helped to deliver . I used them with Quad ESL 57, 63, and 988 speakers. I also had Apogee Stages and Magnepan III’s. My favorite pairing was with the ESL-63’s and Stages.

Since you are interested in using the amp with planars, you might be interested to know that for me, the V12R ran out of juice with the Magnepans when played above 80-85db. The amp worked well with the other speakers I had, though.

I ended up selling the V12R because the combination of the V12R and Cary SLP-98 preamp that i had resulted in too much gain. The protection circuit in my ESL-988’s kept kicking in. There was loud tube hiss through the speakers, perhaps because of the stock tubes that I was using, but also because there was too much gain . The combo had limited usable volume range. I sold the V12R, but in hindsight I probably should have tried different tubes and kept the amp. I should have sold the preamp instead.

Another thing, I’m not sure if the V12i and V12R really have balanced circuitry, or if the xlr inputs are just for convenience. I would double check. Oh, and the V12i and V12R get very hot, almost as hot as an OTL amp.

The above qualms aside, if you have the right speakers and preamp with the V12R, I am sure you will be very happy, just as the other posters in this thread have been.