Cary SLP-98 vs. other high end preamps--C-J, etc.

I bought a used Cary Slp98 a few months ago, it was replacing a Rogue Magnum 99 that I bought brand new and the 99 was less than 2 months old. I took a major loss on the Rogue, but it was worth it once the Cary was installed.

The Cary had the pio cap upgrade, these caps are labeled " Audio 1's" and to who manufactures these caps is a mystery. If you do the research with these caps that Cary offers, you find many posts from indiviguals that they sound awful and have replaced them. I found the Audio 1 cap sounding slow, thick, foggy, soupy (you pick) and lacking great high end extension. Dont get me wrong, the Slp98 sounded great but something was holding it back from becoming a work of art. It was a diamond in the rough.

I yanked these caps and installed the Hovland Musicaps and WOW does the Cary sing. Superb dynamics, excellent lowend, liquid midrange, crystaline highend...and quite. If you buy it new, Cary does offer other cap options.

I agree with Markmendenhall that a great source for tubes is Vintage Tube Services. Andy will answer a call late into the evening.

good luck, kek

Nguyenchiro you mentioned that " SLP-98 has more bottom end but less lush midrange whereas CJ-16LS MKII has an awesome sweet midrange when listening to vocals but lack of bottom end". What caps did the Cary have in it?

Congratulations on your purchase, Steve.

I just stumbled onto this thread because I happened to read Art Dudley's review of the Cary just this morning. I wanted to acknowledge Markmendenhall's post above because I own both a First Sound and a Klyne, and I will attest that they are both superb.

Hi there,
I've owned a Cary-SPL94. What a great pre-amp.
Don't know what different between SLP-94 and SLP-98 (they look quite the same design)?
Is it worth upgrading to SLP-98?

Tony

Steveaudio: I understand your question about the SLP 98 phono stage - just how good is it? I own one, but unfortunately don't have anything to compare it to. I have been questioning how good it is to people whose opinion I value, but not enough people seem to be analog savvy. Everything is CD/digital now. Essentially I have concluded (subjectively) that the inboard phono stage of the SLP 98 is pretty good. I had an A-gon buyer over last weekend who was looking to buy some gear I have listed for sale and he heard my analog set up. I have recently undergone a big 'upgrade' (read: expensive new stuff!!) and am cleaning up all my old albums and really enjoying/re-discovering them. I bought a Benz H-2 wood body cartridge, a new Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck turntabale and I bought all new tubes for my SLP 98 pre-amp. The fellow seemed genuinely impressed with the sound. As part of the analog signal path, I feel that the Cary phono stage must be doing its job pretty well or he would not have been as impressed with the phono results. I have been doing a little reading and if money were no object, I would probably go with a Klyne phono stage. Or possibly the Cary outboard unit, but they are expensive and am at least for now satisfied. I think Dennis Had of Cary being a bit of a throw-back (SET amps, tube amps, etc.) would not put anything substandard in any of his pre-amps. Other options might be the Pass Labs phono stage or EAR. But the Cary, I think holds its own. I will tell you this, though, the Nottingham/Benz combo is excellent. I am back to vinyl and the CD's are used pretty much for their convenience and availability of new music, not for the CD sound vs. vinyl. I also believe there really are a lot of great choices out there. As my tt salesman said to me: when you get to $6k for a turntable, all the makers produce a pretty good product: VPI, SME, Kuzma, Nottingham Analogue etc. I think the new/old stock tubes have as much to do with it as anything. MM