Steve, any opinion on Cary

I've almost been considering Cary tube amps and I don't know anyything about them.

Are they any good, or should I just keep looking for a good used McIntosh or Dynaco? All help is appreciated. THX

 

Buy one! you need tubes--badly.

 

I've listened to the Cary V12 driving Quad 988s and the sound was amazing. No DEEP DEEP for sure but every thing else was wonderful.

 

I was just looking at the prices for the Cary gear over on their web site and it might be great stuff but it seems awefully expensive (at least to me). Seems to me the vintage Mcintosh, Marantz or Dynaco gear would be more of a known quantity. The cheapest push-pull amp on the Cary site is $2500 and you can get a Marantz 8b in good shape on ebay <$1500.

 

Thanks Steve!

Good suggestion. Perhaps I can try a much less expensive Marantz without breakin' the bank, or my wife's temperment.

 

Anyone have first hand experience with Eico? The HF-87 uses 12AX7's for the voltage amp, 6SL7's for the phase splitter, and EL34 power tubes. Seems it would put it at least on par with a Dynaco ST-70 in sound performance, assuming the output iron is any good.

 

I don't they're that rare, but I don't think they are quite as common as some of the other brands we've mentioned in this forum before. I see them mentioned in the tube forum over on audiosylum and generally given a thumbs up for the money.
I see different models of Eico tube gear on Ebay pretty regularly for about the same cost as the Dynaco ST-70.


I was just tossing out another option for Dave unless someone can come up with a reason to avoid them.

 

I love my Eico HF-81 and HF-12 integrated amps. I was thinking of getting any number of other things, but am happy with what I decided on.

A couple things to keep in mind when buying Eico amps--a lot of these were sold as kits and so their finished state depends on the skill of the builder.

Also, you're talking more than 40 years old for these, so you have to figure on some capacitors probably needing replacement. Amazingly, the tubes are usually good after all that time. (The tuner tubes will probably last 100 years.)

An incredible find was on eBay the other day. An unassembled kit of the monoblock Eico HF-60. In the original box and everything. Went for $1000. Original price was $72.95.

 

Boy do I hear that one loud and clear..........unlike my system when the wife's home.

Wanna make friends with my wife? Just mention that you're going to help me put together a tube system, the next time you come over.