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Cary 805s or Atma Sphere M60s?

Currently have a pair of 805s with an SLP-05 preamp, and 91db Vienna Acoustic speakers with silk tweeters coupled with anti-cable autoformers (all SET amps should have these autoformers-do yourself a favor and try them out). Thinking about an OTL amp. Are they everything they're cracked up to be, or what about push-pull amps? I'm just like you guys I love tube sound, dynamics, soundstage, richness, air, and detail. Is one configuration outstanding above another? I want to hear your thoughts and experience.

Eric.
erfranke

Showing 2 responses by onemug

onemug
784 posts
 
Very happy with my 805 AE. Pretty versatile with it's power rating. Had it on my Maggie 3.6's last night.

Charles1dad, I know we share our love of 300b amps. I use them on my hi-eff system. The 805 was an experiment to see if I could get that SET magic with the Mags. Works for me. I thought Cary used the 300b tube as just a driver tube for the 845/211 output tube but found out the 805 is really a 300b "amp" driving the 845/211 tube thru an interstage transformer. That's probably why I like it so much. Kinda like a Cherry Coke? :-)
onemug
784 posts
 
Charles1dad,
Thanks. I'm positive your system is very special. Curious as to how loud you like your listening level?

Pubul57,
I think specs have to be interpretted correctly to get theory to hand off to practice. I see my Maggie specs as, 1: a very flat 4 ohms (flatter the better for tubes and especially SET's). 2: bass is around 5 ohms, mid 4 ohms and treble mid to high 3 ohms. 3: crossover freq has a bump instead of a dip (tubes like that, don't have to dump a lot of current as in a dip situation). 4: They are a line source so they will sound louder than a point source of the same sensitivity.

The catch of course is you can only go to x loudness with x amount of power. It has to fit ones desires. SET's have such vanishing low distortion at low power levels that I really enjoy them on the Maggies at my desired level.

FWIW, I had VSM's back in the 90's. From what I remember of them and what I heard recently when I demoed an S-30, I think that would be a great combo.
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