Cary CAD MB500's - anyone heard them

just purchased a pair in the last week. i'm still breaking them in, but so far they are very impressive. they are replacing cary slam 100s. my speakers are magnepan 3.5s and i just felt i needed some more power. they have a rich full sound and give my maggies more bass than i ever thought possible together with the good qualitites of the slam 100s. rudge

I heard them at the CES show this year driving Dynaudio speakers. They were dynamic, big soundstage and musical. Then Cary replaced them with their 211's. I thought their 500 mono's were much better w/ the Dynaudio speakers. I did not know they cost that much.
Nick

Here's what I posted last month in this forum on the Cary 500-MB:

02-14-06: Oldvinyl
Here's an excerpt I wrote on Audio Asylum on the 500-MB:

As with other Cary gear, these amps took well over 100 hours play time to come in to their own. And come in to their own they did.

From the Cary write up – “1 x 500 watts per channel @ 8 ohms, 1 x 1,000 watts per channel @ 4 ohms, Class A/B solid state design, Toroidal power transformer, remote turn-on trigger, RCA or FET discrete Pure Balanced Inputs, audiophile design mono power amplifier, silver anodized aluminum front panel standard, black front panel optional, black painted steel chassis. Dual WBT speaker terminals for bi-wire operation.”

Again, this is serious power. Fortunately, the Ruarks soaked it up. My friends and I had loads of fun listening to “The Vikings” by Arthur Wills (Reference Recordings HDCD Sampler and Pomp & Pipes). The bass ports moved enough air to create a draught in the room. Ah organ music and a fresh breeze.

I never heard these amps run out of steam, never heard them get harsh, never heard anything but effortless sound. The dynamics were powerful, lots of bass slam, deep powerful bass with excellent control, orchestral swells that did not run out of steam, fully fleshed out soundstage with energy and palpability in all locations.

But the most amazing thing about the CAD 500-MB is how akin to the finest Cary tube amps they sound. The harmonic presentation and timbral character is so close to the 211 AE’s that it is amazing. The 500-MB’s do not have that last degree of burnished glow in each and every instrument or voice, but then again they cost less than half of what the 211’s cost.

I really could not detect any soundstage difference between the CAD 500-MB, the 211AE’s or the 1610’s. They were that close.

Compared to the Cary A-306, the 500-MB’s had a more musical sound, more refined high end (upper frequencies) and a more liquid ebb and swell with the music. They just got out of the way and sang. The A-306 always sounded like they had more power, more reserve, always raring to go. I preferred the more effortless sound of the 500-MBs.

Now to get my hands on some attenuators so I can bi-amp with the 500-MB’s on the woofers. That should be something else. Tubes on top, outstanding solid state on the bottom.

Bottom line: the CAD 500-MB’s are staying, the A-306 goes back.