Attention Cary V12R owners

I'm looking for descent condition VW microbus 1969...1974, but I only have $1,200 to invest...

I have one and love it. Yes it's on the warm sounding side w the EL 34's but the mids are awesome ... It tightens up and cleanly extends and "clarifies" w good KT 88's or my favorites the Winged C 6550's. The partial/ full triode power options can be fun and rewarding based on your speaker type and especially your types of music. It does run hot so keep little alive bodies away. Personally it's one of my favorite amps and I can't bring myself to sell mine even though its replacement already cost me 4X its price. Great amp and a real sleeper. Good luck.

You should have no problems if it's been rebuilt correctly. I traded mine for the CAD120's. The V12R had only one negative in that it ran too hot for me here in Florida. If it's at least an 8 1900.00 isn't a bad deal. Any more though, and I'd wait for the 120's. Good luck.

I've been very happy with mine. If it's truly in good shape that would be a good price. I would offer one suggestion though - while the Jensen caps are ok, the factory upgrade to the Cardas caps was that much better (though pricy). Also, if your dad is looking for the deepest black backgrounds this might not be the amp for him - they can be a little noisy. Just my observation from owning one for the last three years. I would second Lissnr's assessment that KT88/6550s are a good investment for this amp. Bass tightens up appreciably, and my experience has been that they're a quieter tube than the EL34s or KT77s in this amp. It is also advisable to get six cork coasters to put underneath the rubber feet. The weight of the amp will leave rubber marks on furniture. Finally, it is built like a tank: heavy gauge steel body, massive transformers, all point to point. It's a really well built piece of gear. Perhaps not the perfect amp, but if you like it's sound it's quite a performer. Like I said, I really like mine.

Well my dad originally had an 80's luxman integrated 50watt single ended solid state amp which overheated and since can't get parts is buying a new amp, so he would happy with any thing with a triode circuit. But thanks for the input with the capacitors. I was acutely going to get them uprated on my cad120s but probably go with the Cardas caps then.

Though I am glad everyone has not had major problems with this model amp. This should settle his mind on buying it.

I truly hate new audio sales men when a person like my dad looks for a deal in his price to replace his old amp and is in a tight budget. And says the Cary amp is a crap product and poorly designed, after his store use to sale cary before he started working there.

Also if cary is that bad why would they even use to sell cary in the first place and in fact cary it for 5 striate years! Then saying for my dad to cuff up $4000 more and buy a prima luna mono amps! Which he can not even do in the first place.

And people who I have talked with that have been selling i the audio equipment business for more then 30years. More years experience then the new guys are, and praise how great cary audio tube amp products are and reliable!