Cary SLI-80 tweaks and improvements?

In the hands of a very skilled tech, you can get a bit more out of the amp and make it more enjoyable with your current speakers. The stock model has the lower grade volume control getting in the way, limited coupling capacitors (may even be dried out), standard wiring to the binding posts, and clearly using limited tubes. I ran Gold Lyon KT88s in mine, and they were decent, not too bad. You could try PSVANE, and we did these in a buddy’s upgraded Jolida amp, they were very nice new.

btw, helped a buddy upgrade his VA speakers, the end result required woofer cone replacements and entire crossover replacements with help of Danny at GR research. In hindsight my friend should just have replaced the factory x-over parts with better parts a few levels up, and left the crossover design alone imo. We tried a simple parts upgrade because he was cheap, but it made a difference. Then the GR upgrade, which I felt was overboard. And, I’ve heard that amp with Klipsch RP600Ms, and would not waste your money IF you can simply get the same tech to replace crossover parts in your existing VAs instead. Just trying to save you money, and cut to the chase, a lot of hype out here imo.

Even if it takes a solid year to find and you have to drive/haul the gear 5hrs away to find the right tech, it can be worth it. Best of Luck.

A couple things here as I’ve owned the SLI-80 a couple times both upgraded F-1 varieties. It’s a great amp and IMO will never be confused sound wise with SS and has definitely has that tube magic with the right speakers. Duane, the upgraded volume control I believe you refer to is actually an input selector switch that Cary offers an upgrade from factory standard issue to Grayhill brand which was included in the F-1 Editions.

Cary still only lists these including the Grayhill switch. A local colleague did additional upgrades on mine beyond the std stuff Cary offers. The newer upgrades were better imo than the older F1 upgrades. The newer Mundorf caps really made a difference over the older Jensens too on my buddies 98 pre. He had both versions in his preamp too. I sold mine, will see I if I can find the name of the upgrades volume potentiometer etc. Cary does not offer it iirc. 

I received a reply from Cary.  It looks like their upgrades have expanded beyond what's on their website.  They now offer an upgraded choke as well as some Solan bypass caps that can be installed.  Also, the larger coupling caps are now Mundorf caps as decooney mentioned.  Mine must be a bit older since I have the Jensens in the kit.

I'm emailing the gentleman there for some clarification on a couple of items.

There's a local technician that I found that mostly works on vintage guitar tube amps that I have used to test my tubes as I come across them.  I'll see what his thoughts are if he wants to tackle this project.

What's funny about this thread is the amp sounds quite good, actually.  But since we can be a weird bunch and I think I must have been spoiled with the Decware, here I am chasing that last bit of detail.  

Decooney,

I have a couple of other questions:

1) When installing the 4 Hexfreds, do they just replace the standard diodes that are there, while retaining the tube rectifiers, or are they meant to replace the existing tube rectifiers all together?  The installation "diagram" doesn't say anything about this.

2) I can't seem to locate a Grayhill volume control pot mentioned anywhere such as a part number or anything on Cary's website.  Would you have that info, as well?

Thanks for all the replies and help, so far!