Reliability of Cary Audio Products

I purchased a Rocket via audiogon a year ago - dead tubes, bad fuses, no mA plug. Took a month to sort it out - weird hazy sound, tube swapping inconclusive - finally took it to a local shop and tested all the tubes. This was after a dead reading on the mA scale on a meter (after I bought a plug from Cary). Bad inputs (EL34) and inverters (6922), one output also shot (KT88). Fuses shot, but still looked ok when held up to the light. Changed the two out, plus bought tubes. Much better. And no problems since. Cary was also very helpful through the mess, even though their site says they don't help people who buy used. Easy to work on, and an interesting experience that made me feel more competent, not less like when you go to an audio store with dead equipment. For me it was like the first time you fix your car yourself. It wasn't actually difficult - the amp itself is pretty bomb proof. I suspect that these sorts of stories though are what has given tubes a bad name and one they have had to get out from under with audio mag reviewers. Now if someone would just do the same about the percieved wattage issue...

My friend who is a audio technician works on cary stuff I would never buy one. One of the intrgrated amps (I don't rember what one) he was working was self destructing due to the fact the wire gauge was way to small & some other design trouble.He told the guy the unit was not worth fixing & if he wanted it fixed to send it back to Cary. If you open one & look at it, it looks like a big mess of wire, not a neat job at all lots of IC's too. This may not be true to all of there stuff Im shur there is many happy Cary owners out there.

My Cary SLI-80 Signature has been spot on for years now. No issues and I love the amplifier. I owned a Cary 308 for about 6 months but upgraded. No issues during my ownership. I have several friends with Cary Amps (SEI and a SLI-50) who have had ZERO issues.

Chris

Problems with a Cary amp some years ago, output tube failures and bias resistor failures. I had some service issues as well. Hopefully they've improved since then.

Had my AES Sixpacs and AE-3 DJH for 2 years now, and have put on a fair number of hours on both pieces. No problems at all.