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cary audio...


Schu

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Based on my experience, I have to go with Craig here. I have tried many amps and the VRD's are still here. Owned them over 4 years now and they still impress me every time I turn them on.

You just don't get this level of build quality for anywhere near the money they sell for. I drive speakers that would never be classified as sensitive, yet the VRD's play them just marvelously.

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I have a Cary CAD 120s upgraded to mk II, and I'm really pleased with it. I have belles, and a couple of non klipsch speakers I use it on, with great success. I do like the ability to switch between triode and ultralinear mode, and really have two amps in one. Numbers wise, it may seem to be too much power for high efficiency speakers, but I'm very pleased with how it sounds with my belles.

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here i will chad in on this new here on site,don't use the stock tube's,my 120 is hook-up with fat base military out-put tube;s ,a cary slp-05 pre-amp,i listen more with 2a3,and wavelength 300b mono blocks,for the 120 is excellent cornwalls...best regards craig

Craig,

You need a better translator. Your message is impossible to read.

Give the guy a break.....its a craiglish thing :wacko: it has taken me 12 years of hammering away at a keyboard to rid myself of the disease and it still flares its ugly face from time to time!

Craig

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I wonder how the Cary 120 would compare to the VRD mono's and stereo offering?

IMHO with Klipsch Speakers no comparison worth talking about. That would be the wrong amplifier in the Cary line to use with Klipsch speakers again IMHO. Too much power and to many tubes in the signal path. The 120 would be a great amp for speakers in the low 80db range with difficult reflected impedance curves and even with those speakers "unless" blasting the walls down in the large room is a priority the VRD's would walk all over them sonically IMHO. In all reality Cary really does not offer anything that would be comparable at this time. The SLI-80 would be close to apples to applies but its an integrated amp. If I was looking at Cary for a true power amp it would be the CAD-805SE...but that I'm sure is one expensive beast... You folks do know with Cary 40 to 50% of the retail price is going to the selling dealer... If Cary produced and marketed an amplifier like the VRD it would cost 7 to $8000 a pair...

you dont have anything to worry about... originally when I started this thread I was just curious because there was a Jupiter upgraded unit available on the secondary market... but that didn't last very long and is long gone.

Ever experienced Boarder Patrol amplifiers?

Border Patrol are some of the very best SET amps on the planet...if your into to the low watt thing! That has never been my cup of tea!

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I wonder how the Cary 120 would compare to the VRD mono's and stereo offering?

IMHO with Klipsch Speakers no comparison worth talking about. That would be the wrong amplifier in the Cary line to use with Klipsch speakers again IMHO. Too much power and to many tubes in the signal path. The 120 would be a great amp for speakers in the low 80db range with difficult reflected impedance curves and even with those speakers "unless" blasting the walls down in the large room is a priority the VRD's would walk all over them sonically IMHO. In all reality Cary really does not offer anything that would be comparable at this time. The SLI-80 would be close to apples to applies but its an integrated amp. If I was looking at Cary for a true power amp it would be the CAD-805SE...but that I'm sure is one expensive beast... You folks do know with Cary 40 to 50% of the retail price is going to the selling dealer... If Cary produced and marketed an amplifier like the VRD it would cost 7 to $8000 a pair...

you dont have anything to worry about... originally when I started this thread I was just curious because there was a Jupiter upgraded unit available on the secondary market... but that didn't last very long and is long gone.

Ever experienced Boarder Patrol amplifiers?

Border Patrol are some of the very best SET amps on the planet...if your into to the low watt thing! That has never been my cup of tea!

What exactly justifies their high prices? Im guessing its a hardware thing? 10-13K for a low power tube setup has to have some exotic qualities.

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I have a Cary CAD 120s upgraded to mk II, and I'm really pleased with it. I have belles, and a couple of non klipsch speakers I use it on, with great success. I do like the ability to switch between triode and ultralinear mode, and really have two amps in one. Numbers wise, it may seem to be too much power for high efficiency speakers, but I'm very pleased with how it sounds with my belles.

What is your previous points of reference?

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I have a Cary CAD 120s upgraded to mk II, and I'm really pleased with it. I have belles, and a couple of non klipsch speakers I use it on, with great success. I do like the ability to switch between triode and ultralinear mode, and really have two amps in one. Numbers wise, it may seem to be too much power for high efficiency speakers, but I'm very pleased with how it sounds with my belles.

What is your previous points of reference?

Tube wise, very limited, only two in fact. I grew up doing all my listening on my Mom's early 60's Packard Bell tube console (unfortunately it wasn't vintage gear, I was listening in the early 60's), All of my own gear had been solid state until about nine years ago when I got the itch to try tubes. I bought a used, modified Jolida 302B, and really enjoyed that a lot. Then a few years ago, I got what I deemed to be a reasonbly good deal on a demo CAD 120s, and the SLP-05 preamp. I like it a lot, but bang for the buck, I got a lot more out of the Jolida for a lot less cost.

I'm an admitted tube rookie, and most likely with more comparative listening to other tube gear, I might become disappointed. So, in order to prevent further damage to my bank account, I think I'll avoid that! :)

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Good!! Yet another example that illustrates the fact that a larger investment is not an automatic guarantee for "better" performance. It always impresses me when a company is able to introduce a product whose foundation and performance rest on innovative, knowledgeable engineering using more commonly available parts -- and, dollar-for-dollar, is simultaneously able to give similar products with significantly higher admission fees a very real 'run-for-the-money.'

It's obviously not always so simple, however, and there are countless reasons why some components are so horrendously expensive. I will say that one of the line stage preamps I built a dozen years or so ago was strongly influenced by a talented designer named Dennis Had. I made some changes to it that brought about subsequent changes in sought-after performance, but the vast majority of the design is associated with his company and offshoot, AES. Without their insight and experience, I would not have made that particular preamp, and it's one I happen to like.

I had a friend years ago -- a really, really smart fellow who could build, and very likely afford, whatever he wanted. He continued to build amplifiers, yet continued also to very much enjoy his Jolida (though I can't remember which particular amp he had).

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