Cary Cinema 8 vs. Krell Showcase vs. TagMclaren AV

I just had the Cary in my place for a demo. For music it was awesome. However, for the TV, especially the HD TV stations and for a few SACD CDs, vocal sound was absolutely terrible. Worse than my Pioneer Receiver. In fact, the voice quality was worse than the direct output from the TV. Voices were muddy, indistinct. It seemed to put the center channel voices all over rather than directly to the Center Channel.

Plus on some of the music we had to go to enhanced bass, just to get some of the bongo drums.

When I talked to Cary directly, he blew me off and stated that the entire problem was due to equalization of the speakers. Never answered why the sound was great if it was entirely instrumental but vocal was poor if everything was going thru the same set and speakers.

Might have been setup, but couldn't get help from Cary as to what.

Needless to say, the unit went back to the dealer.

Could have been mismatch between my system and the unit. I have Pioneer DV45I DVD player, Outlaw 770 amp, ML Odyssey L/R front, ML Cinema Center and ML Script surrounds, plus dual SVS Audion PC16-46+ subs.

Myron

I have a Cary Cinema 8. It is by far very good and very musical piece. It is better than the Krell in my opinion much smoother and warmer sounding. It has a good movie performance as well. I think that it is definitely one of the best out there. For those of you who do not know about Cary, check them out, I think they are one of the best out there it is sad that not many dealers have them. Also, check out the Simaudio Stargate, that sounds very very good too. My choice would have to come down between those two.

My components are:

AMP: Simaudio Titan 5 channel amp

Speakers: Martin Logan Ascent i, Martin Logan Theater i, and Martin logan Scenario for rears

SUB: Infinity HPS 1000 (1000 watts)

Powerconditioner: Monster HTS 1000 and Audioprisms

Sources:
Pioneer 563A universal player with Musical Fidelity A324 upsampling DAC

Samsung HD931 DVD player

Shanling T200 tube player

Monitor: 65" Hitachi TV S500

Cables: Nordost Blue Heaven and Nordost Red Dawns

I hope this helps people.

Dont know the Cary, had a TAG for a couple of years, it is good, but after upgrading to the new TAG Dual Processor, couldnt live with it anymore...

Now have a Showcase, comparing with TAG DP, it is better with anything other than classic music, where TAG´s politeness has an edge over Krell´s forwardness and presence, the Krell sounds better at low volumes, but TAG´s TMREQ is more powerfull if you have a problem room...

I own an AV32r from Tag, bought it in the year 2000, and adore it! it's great for movies, and a wonderful DAC for CD replay too... It looks "the business" as we say in England, I just wish I could afford more of their stuff...

I know nothing about the Cary, but the Parasound halo c2 is superior to the showcase and latest tag in every respect.

The c2 is available for around 3k street whith a 10 year warranty whith bug free operation, upgradability and is considered the pre/pro to buy in the 4k and under range.
There are even 5k pre/pros that were replaced by the c2.

Go to www.avsforum.com and you can find a huge thread on the c2 and which pre/pros it has replaced and/or been compared to.