Theory about Cary amps and their reviewers

Nrchy,

I know a lot of people will disagree, but I think you tried the wrong product if you were looking for the "Cary Magic" in the V12's. I have never owned a V12 amp, but I have auditioned them extensively. I know that the V12's are highly regarded, but to my ears they don't have the same magic as products such as the 805C, SLM-100, and SLI-80.

In fact, I once auditioned a V12 back to back with a pair of 805c's. The V12 sounded dull, flat, lifeless and boring just as you described. I thought there must be something wrong with the system until I substituted the 805c's and everything sprung to life. You really should try to audition some other Cary products if you get the chance. Until then, it's easy share your enthusiasm for Krell FPB amps. I really like those too. If only I had endless resources to set up multiple systems...

Jeffrey, I'm not trying to pick a fight with the gentleman who started this thread, I just tried to point out my experience. He has repeatedly claimed that I either don't know what I'm talking about, or that I have a bias against this product. I know I gave the amps a fair try, and I wanted to buy them until I heard them.

It's good to know that Cary does make some products that do sound good. I had more or less written the company off based on my experience with the V12's.

I don't have either of the Krells anymore, but they did sound better than the V12.

Ok, ok, already - Can we all just agree Dennis Had is probably kind of a hothead, if not actually a bad guy and go on with our lives? I'm more of a Bryston than a Krell man, if it comes to solid state. Anyway with the V12's it's probably an EL34 vs. (insert other tube name here).

better late than never...

I own a Cary 300SEI LX20, the higher watt KR tube version, no longer made due to reliability issues with the older KR tubes and then the company itself. The extra power makes the difference for most speakers. The tube itself is an improvement in the frequency extremes. It's a testimony to Cary's responibility that they made the hard to decision to bag the KR based design in deference to reliability since they loved that tube.

This beautiful little integrated has more detail, transparancy, finesse and "thereness" than the SS EAD Powermaster 500 (and everything else) I compared it to. I also am a big fan of upgrading through modifying as I have done with increasing depth with this amp over time. By upgrading the rectifiers first, then the coupling and bypass caps, then rebuilding the whole damn thing from scratch (ie. polyplroylene power supply caps, upgrading coupling caps again, improved the circuit, adding choke for filament supply, made wiring more direct) I was able to maintain the tube magic and remove most of any down sides, improving speed and transparancy, frequency extremes, bass clarity, smoother sibilance, dynamics, jump factor, lowering noise, hash and grunge, etc...

The point is that the product started out as a great real world product, (cute too) and can be improved to signifantly decrease the issues separating the tube and SS camps. They've also been extremely helpful.

The only negative issues I've had with it are a bit more physical hum off the power transformer than I'd like; output tubes supernovaing which were replaced for free a number of times; and 300B bias resistors burning up over time, which I replaced with their help before I reconfigured the whole thing with separate over speced resistors for each channel.

Dennis is a busnessman and a salesman with plenty of gas in his tank, but he covers all the bases responsibly, including providing a solid product at a fair price. Kirk, their former tech support man is an angel. The new guy is very helpful as well.

ya chooses ya poison...

'smy 2 cents.

Funny thing I went back to Cary in a SLP98P. Witch I love. Maybe a Cary dig amp this time & I do NOT thank Dennis Had is a hothead He is a good guy. & I find Cary's customer service to be pritty good.