2. amps-preamps
  3. 193759-198816

Cary SLP 98 users, past and present, are there any left?

Recently purchased the above mentioned preamp in Jaguar red, has phono section and Lundahl MC upgrade, also Hexfred rectifiers and is direct-coupled. Most of that means little to me but I know the upgrades matter. I am very pleased to far with what I hear and I am listening to nearly new cheap tubes. I'm going to burn them in awhile before deciding what to look for in tube rolling. I have yet to try the phono section as I use my Cary PH301 phono pre and SAEC SUT. Listening to LP12 with Linn Karma LOMC. It all sounds very damn good to me. CD's are easier on the ears than they used to be. I think the tubes tame them down a tad. Currently listening to them on a very old Pioneer DVD player V7400. I think it may sound better than my 20 bit Denon which is up for repairs. 

Cut to the chase, just wanted you guys to know the electronics, front end anyway. The first time I tried the new Cary, I had the umbilical crossed up and only the phono stage seemed to engage. The PS got quite warm. It still runs warm and that is the question. How warm should it run? It's certainly not too hot to touch but it is warm, I'd say twice as warm as my PH301 PS, which is about the same case. It does sound very good. I'm just hoping that I didn't cause harm in my first session. Was only a few minutes but knew something was wrong and found that the umbilical was the problem. I was shocked that it was possible to put it together incorrectly. Never had that trouble on the PH301.

Anyway, overall, I am very pleased and know that I will likely be looking at different tubes down the road. Only complaint is the remote. 5k preamp and 50 cent remote. Kind of cheesy. Not enough to be displeased with anything, just an observation.

billpete
billpete OP
299 posts
 

@erik_squires 

That would explain it then. I only tried the top half and gave up. Surely, they are phased as they are meant to be anyway.

When I reversed the pos neg wires at the speakers, everything sounded wrong to me. Not terrible but not as good either. There was loss of bass and all else seemed muffled, loss of detail I guess. This just can't be how it is meant to be. Maybe mine got changed to normal phasing in one of the upgrades? I have no idea but it sounds too good to be out of phase. I may try it again sometime but my son and I both said the same thing about how it sounded. I only tried two songs on a bass heavy Cd. Switched them back and am back to normal. 

I'm going to contact the guy who I bought it from to see if he has any insight into it as well. Thanks for all the input.

testpilot
991 posts
 

There is an inexpensive app called “Speaker Pop” which can tell you the polarity of each driver. It works as described.  I’ve used to make sure that each speaker was wired with the same polarity. You would be surprised at how many speaker “pairs” are not wired the same. 

billpete OP
299 posts
 

@testpilot 

Thanks. Will check it out. 

immatthewj
3,300 posts
 

I am doing the same as you are with standby/on/off. Standby seems to me that it would shorten the life of tubes.

@billpete , I was going to throw a couple of cents in, but I got distracted by something else; anyway, my SLP-90 also has a standy switch (I am sure the '94 did as well) and I used to leave it off most of the time also.  If I remember, when I was going to listen (and I am no longer someone whose system is playing all day long, slthough I miss those days) I'd put it in stand by for a while before I would turn it to 'on'.  I am sure this will be debunked, but in my mind it was sort of (sort of are the operative words) a soft start.  I say sort of because I think all that happens in standby are that the heater filaments are getting power, so the tubes are already warm to some degree.

On the standby subject, and this is probably tmi, in '94 I bought my first tube amp; it was a Cary SLA 70 Signature and it also had a standby switch.  I was totally new to tubes (or better end altogether) back then, and I made so many stupid mistakes and called cary tech support up with so many stupid questions . . . anyhow, that little amp has four 6550 output tubes and I left it in standby 24/7 X 365.  Somewhere down the road, probably after tubes were worn out and I was trying to figure out what was wrong, I was talking to this great tech guy Cary had at the time (a big shout out to Kirk Owens, where ever he may be now) and he told me that it was not his advice to have my amp always in standby.

Ramble on. . . . 

billpete OP
299 posts
 

@immatthewj 

I think Cary says to leave in standby mode 24/7. I don't. Seems counterproductive to me to keep any part of the tubes working all the time. Plus, I'm anal about leaving anything on unattended. Hazards of being a retired firefighter. It doesn't have to make sense to everyone. We don't care what you think. :)

So............I run mine as you do. From off to standby for awhile, full on for awhile. Listen and enjoy. 

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