Cary 805s or Atma Sphere M60s?

Eric- Did you ever get to make the comparison? I own AtmaSphere MA1s and remember hearing Cary 805s at CES in 2006 and thinking they sounded fantastic (in the Cary room, with all Cary stuff, including speakers (single driver horns, maybe, not sure)). There was a definite magic there, but not sure if it was due to SET amps or single driver speakers, or what. If I were rich, I'd buy a pair of 805s and have both just for fun.

I had M60's MKIII for a couple of weeks. Partnered with Cabasse Iroise 500 speakers (4Ohm, 91 db) often referred as tube friendly. First the clarity of these amps where impressive but over longer time I missed body / substance and the "it's just right" feeling of my VAC PA60 KT88 amps back then. The Autoformers made it better, but overall I was not satisfied with the sound of the M60. The sounded somehow steril, too polished, slightly thin, mechanical and more hifi-ish than my VAC. I gave them back in the end.

I would strictly recommend to audition these amps on your specific speakers and system.

Btw I would rather think that the Vienna Acoustic speakers are not really an ideal match for any SET as well as M60's if you are in need for the autoformers even with the Cary.

Ron

I feel Xronx sums up what some will love about the OTL presentation and others will not. To my ears OTLs matched with the proper load get closer to the sound of live music. Less additive richness and flavor. Some will like this others will not but when all in the system is properly addressed, I feel this sound is difficult to beat in reproducing music accurately. When you think about it what can a transformer do but add artifacts to the sound, it ultimately comes down to a matter of taste and what you are trying to achieve.

For my taste, no amp has sounded better with my Merlin VSMs than the M60s, I even preferred to my CAT JL2s which I thought I would never replace and if I had a more difficult speaker to drive I might well have kept them. I don't focus to much on "warmth", what I hear with the OTLs is a sense of presence to the musicians that sounds more real than other amps I have tried - it is uncanny, and particular to OTLs (I think).

Dennis Had ( Cary) 805's are fantastic amplifiers, highly recommended .

regards,