Cary Audio SLP-05 First Impression

Hi everyone,  I thought I would give you folks another update on my new Cary SLP-5 with Ultimate Upgrade.

I’ve been playing it for a good 8 to 12 hours a day for the last 3 weeks.  I now have almost 200 hours of burn in on the unit.   I noticed a slight improvement at around 60 hours.  I started to hear a bit more warmth, and the top end had quiet down a bit.   Still hearing that nice tight bass.   The 3D soundstage that I most enjoyed when I got my first unit doesn’t seem to stand out as much now.  I don’t know why, maybe the initial ‘wow’ factor is no longer a nice surprise because my expectation had changed, or the Ultimate Upgrade has compromised some of the 3D imaging sound.   I hope it’s more of the former.   Overall, my impression of the Ultimate Upgrade as compared to the stock unit is this:  “Refined”.   The top end is more smooth, and the bottom end is more tight.  

Anyway, here comes the bad news.  When I turned on my system to start listening to my music last Thursday morning.   No sound was coming out from my speakers.   So I checked the SLP-05, I noticed the readings of the 2 blue meters on the power unit were way off from the normal values.  The user manual suggested that the readings should be around 210 VDC and 60 mA, which is what I’ve been seeing while the SLP-05 was working.   Now I’m seeing the voltage is pegged to the max at 300 VDC and the current is down to 30 mA. It is definitely not within the normal range suggested by Cary.   I also noticed the filaments on the 6 tubes on the left side of the unit were not lighting up.  Only the 2 tubes on the right side for the headphones were lit.

So I spent a good couple of days exchanging email with Cary support.  Everything that he asked me to try did not fix the problem.  So I contacted MusicDirect, which is where I bought the unit from, hoping they will be able to let me get a replacement again.   They replied saying that I have to work this out with Cary because technically this is a customized unit because of the ‘Ultimate Upgrade’, and they are not willing to be the broker to address this issue.   But they are nice enough to offer me a refund if I decide not to keep it, and made it clear this is an exception because it is a custom order.

Now I’m stuck in a dilemma of whether sending the unit to Cary for warranty repair, or sending it back to MusicDirect for a refund.  In either case, I will have to cover the shipping cost, which is not a big deal.   I hate to have to send this back to MusicDirect,  but I also don’t want to be stuck with a potential lemon.

I do like the sound of this unit, but I now have real concern with the reliability and quality control of Cary’s products.  I’m hoping this is just a one off anomaly.   So question for you Cary product owners out there:  have you run into quality issues with Cary’s products, or has it always been mostly trouble free?   and for everyone else, feel free to chime in and express your opinions.

P.S.  Remember I sent my first unit back for a replacement because the blue power LED light was missing?   According to Cary support, after they received the unit and they powered it up, the blue light was on.   They even sent me a picture showing me that the light was on.   This is indeed very strange, because when the unit was in my possession, the LED light was clearly missing, and never lit up.   I even sent a picture to Cary and they immediately thought it was dislodged because of rough handling by Fedex.   I wondered if the trip back to Cary had knocked the LED back in place.  Again, it raised my concern of Cary’s quality control.

Thanks for reading.

Wow, Xcool, as a relatively new SLP05 owner, that was a bummer to read.

My experience in the past with Cary Audio (SLA70, SLP90, power bank, V12) has been extremely positive. That stuff I listed was/is extremely reliable & when I did have questions, their telephone tech service was great. Their customer service, back then, was a big part of what kept me a customer.

About a year or so ago, my 20 year old V12 finally had a signal cap shoot craps and I wasn’t super thrilled with the tech support. I sent an email that wasn’t responded to, so I sent a couple of more, and what I got back was an email telling me to send them the unit & what their shop rates were. On a different audio forum than this one, an extremely kind and helpful & patient member exchanged about one thousand emails with me & I troubleshot & changed all 4 caps myself.

After that I had decided to swear Cary Audio Design off, but I heard so much good about the SLP05 with Ultimate Upgrade, that when a preowned one came up on their site I pulled the trigger &, like you, ordered the upgrade.

I understand your dilemma. I think if it was me, and MD was willing to refund me the price of the pre AND the upgrade, I’d reluctantly go that route.

I’ll be watching to see how this works out for you.

. . . I just looked at a note I made re my own, and I am usually reading 230 to 240 VDC and 55 to 60 Ma.

I am also curious: in the email exchange, what was the troubleshooting advice that Cary Audio gave you?

Here are the things that I was told to try:

- unplug all the source connectors, and power up the unit and see if the meter readings go back to normal. 

- check the fuses on the power unit. 

- make sure the unit is not on mute. 

- he did notice from the pictures i sent that my tubes were not inserted all the way in. He was correct.  They really weren’t pushed all the way in because i was afraid if i use too much force, i might break the tubes.  I ended up trying to push them down with a little more force and they all went further in and were seated properly.  Somehow  I was able to play it while the tubes were not completely inserted for a good 3 weeks.  Anyway, this didn’t solve the problem either. 

- Finally I was told to switch my sources to different connectors.  I had a balanced source and a unbalanced source at XLR2 and Aux1.  So I changed them to XLR1 and Aux2.  That didn’t work, but I found some other problem.  After i switched the connections,  I turned the unit on at XLR1, and no sound was coming out.   I then turned the source dial towards Aux2.   It skipped over XLR2 and Aux1.  When the dial landed on Aux2, all the LED lights went off, as if I have powered off the unit, but the power unit remained on.  I then switched the dial back to Aux1, the power LED came back on, and after a minute or so, the ready light came on, much like the normal power on routine.  It was pretty messed up.  I made a youtube video and sent it to Cary, but haven’t heard back since.  Here’s the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpWUXSan4Ig

Yes, the tubes fit tightly in those sockets. Personally, I would prefer to grip the tube by the base when I inserted it or removed it, but that was one of the first things I noted about this pre that I thought was flawed about the design--the fact that the tube sockets are recessed about 2" below the top of the pre, & unless you have tubes with higher than usual bases, you can’t do that. I was a bit worried about breaking something on the board by pushing to hard, myself.

As far as the plate voltage & plate current, I am definitely not an electrician or electronically minded, but I was thinking that those were indications of what was going through the tubes (ie "plate"), but  Cary didn’t suggest anything about the tubes.  (I thought it was indicating the bias of the preamp tubes.)

I have to find my computer headphones in order to hear anything that I am watching on my computer, so I will give that a go later on. With everything that is going on, I am kind of thinking that I would be inclined to take the refund from MD, but, will you have to eat the cost of the upgrade?