Cary Audio SLP-05 First Impression

@xcool Glad to hear your sticking it out with the Cary as it could also be the reason for the sound change? That alone would have me curious to hear it working as should, as nothing is perfect and good support goes miles and miles on anything we purchase and sounds like your in good hands. Thanks on the MF, I scored major WAF points between the M8 preamp and Marantz 30n sacd I got to go along with the upgrades both in silver and as the wife helped me unpacked them  and when removing the beauty bag she  was stunned at the looks and understood the $$$ spent for the first time!

Yeah it does have to look good for me as well or it's a no go!

@xcool I respect you for not wanting to screw over either MD or Cary Audio, but returning a product that you paid a lot of $ for, and one that is not operating at all or operating as advertised, is not what I would define as screwing someone.

As far as the tubes not being completely pushed into their respective sockets . . . I can see how that might degrade the signal path, but I am not getting how it would cause damage that would cause the unit to completely cease to function . . . but as I typed earlier, I am not an electrician. (Maybe that caused some fluctuations in the current between the socket & the pins of the tubes that caused a cap or a resistor or a diode to fail?)  Good luck with this whatever you decide to do. The SLP05 certainly is a good looking unit, and so far, I am finding mine a unit that sounds delicious.

how do you compare the cary pre to the herron you said you have.....

@immatthewj,  I understand your rationale on returning the unit that is not working the way it should.  I feel bad because MD had already replaced my unit once.  They actually were going to repair my first unit, but I asked for a replacement, and they were happy to accommodate me on that.  Since this is the 2nd unit, and a custom order, they are less flexible on that.  But it's nice that they offered me the option of returning for a refund on a custom order.   You are making me change my mind now 😀

This thing with the tubes not seated properly can cause failure seems bizarre to me. If this is indeed the root cause, I would argue that it is a design flaw.   As you mentioned in your previous post, the fact the tube sockets are sunken in below the surface can be problematic.  You can't see whether your tube is properly inserted.   You can only go by feel.  Being a newbie with tubes,  I tried to be extra careful of not using too much force, worrying that I might break the tube.   I think Cary should have better documentation on how to insert the tubes.

Let's see how it goes.   Hopefully it's a minor issue.

Hey @kennesawjet, not sure if you’re aware, the Herron that I have is a phono stage preamp, not a line stage preamp like the Cary SLP-05.

Anyway, If I have to characterize the sound quality of the Herron, then I would say it is very neutral. It just seems to disappear from your analog pipeline. Some people might think it lacks character. I was auditioning the Herron, Parasound JC3+, and the PS Audio Stellar phono at the time. The JC3+ was super smooth, almost to a point that it’s artificial. Whereas the Stellar sounded a little too analytical to me. Herron is definitely the most neutral sounding of the 3. I kind of wanted a tube preamp at the time, so I decided on the Herron, and have no regrets.

If you have read some of my comments in this post, the positive attributes of the Cary is the details, tight bass, and the 3D-ish imaging, and it really draws you into the music.