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Cary Audio SLP-05 First Impression

Hi,  I just received my Cary Audio SLP-5 tube preamp this weekend.  It’s only been less than 48 hours and I can’t wait to share my experience with my fellow A’goners. If I have to summarize my initial impression of this unit in one word, it would be:  WOW!!!

I don’t consider myself a true audiophile, so I don’t really have a strong audiophile vocabulary to describe the sound quality, but a few clichés come to mind:

  • sounds like the musicians are right there in my room
  • holographic 3D sound
  • dead quiet
  • sweet & non-fatiguing top end
  • deep bass

Couple of things I hope will continue to improve is a tiny bit more punchiness in the mid bass, and smoothing out some occasional graininess at the top end.

My strongest impression so far is the overall imaging of the sound, and the sense that I’m listening to live music.  Last night I had my system casually playing in the background when I was doing stuff around my apartment, and Eva Cassidy’s Live at Blues Alley album came on.   I was suddenly drawn to the music, and for the first time ever, I finally understand what the description ’sounds like the musicians are right there in my room’ means.   It was surreal.   It brought a big smile to my face.  It was simply beautiful.   Need I say more?

This is the first line level tube preamp I’ve ever owned.  I do own the Herron VTPH-2A tube phono preamp.   Now I know what all that fuss and craze of tube pre/power amps are about.   I guess you simply have to experience it to appreciate it.   I still feel my Parasound JC2 and JC5 combo sounds great, and I am not planning to get rid of them anytime soon.   It’s just that the Cary SLP-05 completely opens up a new music dimension that I’ve never experienced before, and so far it’s been very pleasant.

I will consider doing the ‘Ultimate Upgrade’ offered by Cary at $1600 at some point.   Please feel free to share your experience If you are a SLP-05 owner and have done this upgrade.

I have purchased so many components in the last couple of years based on suggestions and comments that I received, and stuff I read in this forum.  So thanks to those who continue to contribute and share their experiences to fellow members. 

Finally, a big shout-out to @ghdprentice for your suggestion of tube preamps and brought up the Cary brand name in one of my other discussions.  This preamp is certainly a keeper.

PS:  there are a couple of changes Cary had made to the latest production of SLP-05.  It now comes with a universal remote control.  The same one that they sell for $190 on their website, instead of a basic 3 buttons remote that I read from some older reviews.   Also they no longer recommend stacking the control unit on top of the power unit, and therefore those indentations on the top of the power unit are gone.  It is simply a flat surface now.   Actually to my surprise, the power unit runs much hotter than the control unit.  I always thought the control unit would run hotter because that is where the vacuum tubes sit.

PPS: My unit was shipped with the blue power LED missing.  After contacting Cary Audio support, they told me it was most likely dislodged due to rough handling by Fedex.  So the unit is now going back and i would have to wait for a replacement.   That sucks, but kudos to the customer support folks at both Cary Audio and Music Direct for their great service!

Thanks for reading.

128x128xcool
immatthewj
2,133 posts
 

BTW.  is there anyway I can visually check if a tube is bad or not?  Just curious.

Upon occasion I've had tubes that took on a strange glow or put on  lightening show when powered up; however, in your case, I think that the visual you would get is no glow at all. But other than that, not really, and the no-glow isn't even definitive, as it may well be something else in the circuit before the tubes.

 

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 was actually thinking that if something happened to both tubes in sockets 3 & 6, that would end the signal path right then & there & if that was the case, there would be no output when using the balanced inputs.  However, that quote above is pretty weird, and that makes me think that this is a failure of some electrical component (resistor, cap, diode, etc) on the circuit board prior to the tubes.  I will continue to reiterate, however, how electronically challenged I am, so you can probably take my thoughts on this matter with a grain of salt. 

Looking at the bright side:  this is under warranty, and as disappointed as I know that you are (believe me, I can relate) with being unable to play with your new toy, from reading prior posts, at least you have vinyl and an operational phono-stage.

But I will be interested to know what they tell you is wrong with it.

 

xcool's avatar
xcool OP
273 posts
 

Hey @immatthewj, you’re right about my tubes. The 6 on the left side have no glow at all, only the 2 headphone tubes on the right side have glow. Other than that, the tubes seem to look fine to me visually.

As with how a poorly seated or non functional tube can affect the rest of the circuitry, this is what Cary support person said in our email exchange:

"A tube can cause an intermittent issue and maybe cause an arch in the circuit. Its possible that a tube may have been compromised and will need to be replaced. Hopefully that maybe all that is needed."

I actually don’t understand what it means by ’cause an arch in the circuit’. Does anyone understand what that means?

Yes, I’m just as curious as you are finding out what is the root cause here. Maybe it’s my wishful thinking, I feel that Cary will do right by me and do a good job fixing it. Will definitely share with you guys once I find out more.

immatthewj
2,133 posts
 

That must have been a typo on their part.  I am pretty sure that they meant "an arc in the circuit."

immatthewj
2,133 posts
 

And I believe that they would be possibly meaning that something (damage) had occurred that created a gap somewhere (where there was once continuity) in the circuit, and the arc that they are referring to would be the current jumping that gap.

immatthewj
2,133 posts
 

Something else that interests me are the meter readings:

going from memory I think that you said that "plate voltage" (VDC) was pegged out, and that "plate current" was down to 30 Ma. I really have only a less than rudimentary understanding of this subject, but I am thinking that even though preamp tubes have different functions than amp tubes, they still need to have some sort of bias control (meaning the current flow through them, which would be the desired Ma reading) like amp tubes do, and if I am correct, on the preamp it would be an auto-bias function.

But I could very well be wrong about all of that; hopefully someone will clear up my cloudy understanding of those two readings.

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