Is the Cary SLP-05 still relavant?

If any of you guys are still around, help me out here please. I'm a little confused on gain matching. The gain is high, 24db with balanced outputs, on the SLP-05. What is the ideal amplifier gain, or gain range for optimum performance match?

@charliee , sorry, I don't have an answer to your question, but if you start a new thread related to the specific question, you will probably get more responses from knowledgeable people that way than by reviving an older thread.

However, here is another thread related to SLP 05 and too much gain.

SLP 05/too much gain?

@immatthewj,

Thank you. 

@charliee I own and love the SLP-05 and have used many amps.  

For the high gain of the balanced out I recommend an amp with 20 db gain ideally, the Pass Labs XA25 was perfect.  Possibly 22-23 db but not many amps have that kind of low gain.  

For the single ended outs you can match to any amp- e.g. 26 to 29 db gain.  Trust me on this. 

Thanks avanti1960, that’s very helpful. I am favoring a Coda amp, or possibly the Atma-Sphere class D mono’s.They both have balanced and single ended inputs. The Coda has 26db of gain, the Atma-Sphere class D has 22db. So if I want to run balanced, the class D’s appear to be the better match with the SLP-05.

I had the SLP 05 with ultimate upgrade for a few years.  It's a great preamp, maybe not the final word in transparency but certainly falls into the camp of classic tube amp (warm) sound.  It's audio jewelry, built like a tank.  I actually preferred the Schiit Freya + personally after spending months going back and forth between the two.  I was using some CBS Hytron tubes in the freya that made it sound a lot better than the stock tubes and those tubes cost almost as much as the preamp itself but it's really good for the money.  I don't think you will have a problem matching the SLP 05 to any amp.  It has a lot of gain, you won't be much over 9 O'clock on the dial with the volume.