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Cary 805s or Atma Sphere M60s?

Currently have a pair of 805s with an SLP-05 preamp, and 91db Vienna Acoustic speakers with silk tweeters coupled with anti-cable autoformers (all SET amps should have these autoformers-do yourself a favor and try them out). Thinking about an OTL amp. Are they everything they're cracked up to be, or what about push-pull amps? I'm just like you guys I love tube sound, dynamics, soundstage, richness, air, and detail. Is one configuration outstanding above another? I want to hear your thoughts and experience.

Eric.
erfranke
honest1
586 posts
 
Eric - What did you do with your Carys? Do you ever go back to them for variety? Is there anything they do better than the S30 (other than put on a really cool green light show)? If you ever get the upgrade itch, seriously consider the update to 3.1 on the Atmasphere. I got it on my MA1s, and have been very happy. There was a touch of upper mid agressiveness before that is gone with the update. I think it's quite affordable, too. The only drawback is handing your precious amplifier over to Fedex for a round trip to Minnesota.
erfranke OP
24 posts
 
The Cary's are a high-calorie sweet dessert with a focused sound stage. They do lose air around the instruments with more complex pieces of music. They are great for listening to jazz, vocals, acoustics, and the like. The Atma Sphere has a very broad spectrum sound stage, with a velvety black background, contrasted with timbre and detail with strings, chimes, and other types of percussion. Bass also has color, texture and warmth along with visceral punch I have never experienced before. Music is absolutely "real sounding" The instruments and vocals become life-size even with the small listening dimensions I am limited too. I am tempted to sell the Cary's however both have attributes I enjoy. In the end however, the Atma Sphere is the amplifier I prefer; clean, realistic with the soul of tubes.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Glad you had a chance to try the Atma-sphere OTL and come to your own conclusion, we all hear differently and seek different things from the sound of our equipment, in both cases it seems we might be on the same page. Which is not to say I would not also love the Cary, simply have not tried it.
augwest's avatar
augwest
43 posts
 
In my case, I prefer the Atma-Sphere's speed and intimacy. I can hardly imagine anything that could touch the M-60's at their price point. I compared the exceptional BEL 1001 MkV's, 220 Watt solid state monoblocks which I would also pick over the Cary by a slim margin.

There's a nice pair of Atma-Sphere M-60 3.1's with every available upgrade (the Caddock resistors are very expensive and worthwhile) available on AudiogoN now.
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