Cary 120s

I have no firsthand knowledge on the Cardas Teflon cap upgrade. I have only read good things about the Cardas caps coupled with the fact that Cary uses them in their new Founder’s edition 211. My experience is limited to V-caps and Mundorf in an 805 amp. The V-caps change the 805’s character but does add another level of transparency and speed. The Mundorf’s take away a bit of the 805’s warmth, adds a touch of quickness, more bottom end extension, and a bit more transparency.

Because Cary utilizes point to point wiring, any competent tech can perform the cap upgrade without breaking the bank.

With respect to tubes and the Rocket 88, the combination is almost endless. What I generally suggest to anyone who purchases a new tube amp is to live with the amp for an extended period and note the amps short comings i.e. lack of bass or extended highs etc. This will give people who have rolled tubes in a Rocket 88 a basis to make a recommendation.

Thanks Brf and everyune else who responded.

I think I am leaning toward the rocket 88 and will go with some good nos driver tubes and think about some high quality cap upgrades.

I went through a 2 year electronic trade school course about 25 years ago and am familiar with any easy component changes that I might try on the amp. I still have my soldering pencil, rosin core solder, solder wick, and beckman digital vom. I guess it is time to put the old tools back to use again.

I tried to like ss equipment... 2 vintage 70's marantz recievers, a 70's sansui integrated, a newer rotel av reciever, and a bryston 3b st amp..... I MUCH prefer the warm and musical sound of my dynaco st70 tube amp to any of these. I guess I am a tube convert now.

I am hoping that a higher quality modern tube amp will sound even sweeter in my rig. I will soon find out.

Thanks again, Dave

For what it's worth: I bought one of the used 120S models here on Audiogon. I have not had much chance to experiment with the sound (I'm between preamps) but I have used it enough (with a loaner preamp) to speak to the heat issue. As tube amps go, mine does not seem to get inordinately hot at all. This amp is much less hot, for example, than the Six-Pac monoblocs I once owned. Of course it does get somewhat hot, as one would expect an 8-tube KT88 amp to do. But not unexpectedly so.

I'll report more on this thread

"I'll report more on this thread."

Looking forward to your comments. Thanks.

Cary Audio's "Audio Electronic Super Amp MkII" is cut from the same cloth as the s120 and is a big step up from the St70 at half the cost of the s120. And it is smokin' good, and will let you roll EL34, KT-66,7,88,90s, 6550 and others w/o any internal mods. Cary will go on and on about it whenever I call them to discuss something.