Stan, I looked very hard at the 500.1's and ultimately decided to upgrade my Clayton's instead. I might have been swayed if there had been more information out there about the 500.1's but they are quite new. I understand there may be a pair currently in for review by a major publication so maybe we will hear more about them in the future. You mentioned significant improvements in bass and dynamics over your former Bryston amps, but how about mids and high frequencies, or is it too early to tell?
Anyone heard the new Cary SA-500.1 Monoblocks?
Stereophile from CES 2011 said,
These are apparently a significantly different (better?) amp from the former model 500MB monos that I owned and enjoyed.
I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually heard and seen them.
The SA-500.1 sounded warm, open, coherent and dynamic playing high-resolution files courtesy of David Chesky and HDTracks.Cary's white paper indicates the 500.1's maintain the "Cary Sound" (similar characteristics to their tubed designs) with a host of design improvements "over our previous efforts" (the 500MB?) including substantial power supply improvements; current-handling capacity; improved bass performance; reduced noise floor; improved imaging, staging, depth, and dimensionality; a more "lifelike and palpable" midrange; and improved transparancy. One specific change is apparently eliminating the former large capacitors (that "suffer from problems including (ESR) Equivalent Series Resistance), using multiple smaller capacitors (like McCormack DNA?) and "adding bypass capacitors at the output devices." The amps also apparently feature improved reliability and a "modular design" that would allow easy field repairs.
These are apparently a significantly different (better?) amp from the former model 500MB monos that I owned and enjoyed.
I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually heard and seen them.
Showing 2 responses by mitch2
Since my June post, I have received my upgraded Clayton M300 amps and they are outstanding. Totally quiet, they improve on the earlier version in dynamics, bass depth and slam, and dimensionality, none of which were weaknesses with the original version - just that the new version is better. I believe the improvements are mainly in power supply and even larger/better transformers. Of course, the Clayton's are run fully in Class A bias, which means even with their low/high bias switch, it is best not to leave them on all the time. A blessing and a curse, the Class A issue is one reason I seriously considered the Cary amps, and ultimately the reason I stayed with the Clayton's - they just sound so darn good. Regarding the Cary SA-500.1's, I will post some links that I was able to find, but nothing except the Moon Audio link is new since June when I last looked. Cary did tell me they were sending a pair in for review by a major audiophile magazine, so be on the lookout for an upcoming review. Here are a few links I found in addition to what's on the Cary site: http://www.stereophile.com/content/cary-audio-design-goes-solid-state http://www.ultrahighendforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=199&t=4074 http://www.moon-audio.com/home-audio/cary-audio/cary-sa-500-1-solid-state-power-amplifier.html |