Theory about Cary amps and their reviewers


Cary is now one of the older tube companies around from the tube boom in the'90s. My experience with them has been very positive. I wonder if some of the criticisms of them - fat, not extended, slow, etc., are in fact relics of the first reviews in magazines which were so used to solid state and still in the "wattage race". I have heard Rockets and V12's in rock and home theater setting pulling duty that would put solid states to shame. I also notice you never really see those sorts of reviews anymore. Other than making the amps compatable with higher gain devices, so that they can have direct inputs from things like CD's with volume controls, have there been any fundamental changes though? I prefer the slightly older versions with the lower gain input myself, but I understand the rationale.
biomimetic
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.
I very much agree that they are always professional. Sometimes I think dealing with them is a little more off-putting than with some companies.