Cary 2A3 opinion


I am starting a 2nd system and am looking at the Cary preamp with their 2A3 mono's. 'Small room, acoustic music, 91 db speakers. The other possibility is perhaps a Mesa Tigris (yes, very different). Thanks for your opinion.

roy c
zbroyc
I have the Cary 2A3's and find them an excellent value. They sound best with the KR tubes which they are supplied with from Cary. So far I have used the Valve Art 2A3's (shit) and a couple pairs of RCA's which are nice but a little rounder sounding. It is about synergy no doubt. The best pre I have mated the Carys with so far was the VAC Standard. For the record source was strictly digital.
I use a Cary 94 preamp with their 2A3 Monoblocks and the upgraded Bel-Canto Dac-1. I tried several hi eff. speakers, 90dB, 92db, 94dB, sound was OK but the 2A3's did not do their magic until I switched to a 98dB or higher speaker. I use a Klipsch KLF 30 tower speaker 102dB. If you can, demo your speaker selection first with the 2A3's.
Good Luck, let us know what you do.
Lak makes a good point Zbroyc, I forgot to mention in my previous post, I use the Avantgarde Duo's