Cary 120s

Had the Rocket 88 and V12R they both kick ass and the 120S kicks both of their asses IMO. At least when hooked up to the SLP05 or the SLP98P. You should be very happy with a 120S at a good price, unless there is something wrong with the unit.

excellent price now i have the slp-05 with balance cable's with the 120s excellent with my jbl-l300 ....i had at one time the rocket 88 not even closeeeeee but you have eight output tube's and i like to buy the best output costly .. maybe that said is why you might see them go up so much for sale,,,,,,,,,,,,,enjoy you can not go wrong

Thanks for the input. I know the 120s uses 8 kt88 output tubes and could cost a little to retube.

Does anyone know what the average hours on a set of output tubes in one of these amps should be?

I am using a classe audio dr6 ss preamp with balanced xlr outputs that are being wasted with the dynaco..... that is why I am looking at cary and bat amps with balanced inputs.

I do like the warm tube sound of the dynaco and it seems that cary's "sound" may be warmer than bat so I am leaning more toward cary.

I am probably going overboard with my preamp/amp for my "cheap" speakers (quad 11L mini monitors) but I will upgrade those maybe after tax refunds next year.

So with 8 kt88 tubes, how hot does the 120s get?

Brf..... you say the 120s was your least favorite cary amp, can you describe the sound difference that you disliked on the 120s?

Thanks,Dave

This amp is fantastic, if you get an octet of Gold Lions, and especially if you have the caps upgrade done. The SLP-05 sounds best with this amp, of ALL the Cary amps; and the 306Pro run balanced through the SLP-05 all the way to the 120S and into Dali speakers was one of the best sounds at CES two years ago. Last Jan, they (Cary) ran the new 211FE's with the SLP-05 and the 306Pro into Marten Design Coltranes, and it didn't sound near as good, IMHO.

I to have the 120s and the CAD 500MB. I actually bought two 120s to bi-amp, but it did not work out. With the right tubes, this amp can kick some serious azz. Mine has the pope 6sn7 and the tung-sol. The 120s does not get hot.