Cary SLP 98 users, past and present, are there any left?
Recently purchased the above mentioned preamp in Jaguar red, has phono section and Lundahl MC upgrade, also Hexfred rectifiers and is direct-coupled. Most of that means little to me but I know the upgrades matter. I am very pleased to far with what I hear and I am listening to nearly new cheap tubes. I'm going to burn them in awhile before deciding what to look for in tube rolling. I have yet to try the phono section as I use my Cary PH301 phono pre and SAEC SUT. Listening to LP12 with Linn Karma LOMC. It all sounds very damn good to me. CD's are easier on the ears than they used to be. I think the tubes tame them down a tad. Currently listening to them on a very old Pioneer DVD player V7400. I think it may sound better than my 20 bit Denon which is up for repairs.
Cut to the chase, just wanted you guys to know the electronics, front end anyway. The first time I tried the new Cary, I had the umbilical crossed up and only the phono stage seemed to engage. The PS got quite warm. It still runs warm and that is the question. How warm should it run? It's certainly not too hot to touch but it is warm, I'd say twice as warm as my PH301 PS, which is about the same case. It does sound very good. I'm just hoping that I didn't cause harm in my first session. Was only a few minutes but knew something was wrong and found that the umbilical was the problem. I was shocked that it was possible to put it together incorrectly. Never had that trouble on the PH301.
Anyway, overall, I am very pleased and know that I will likely be looking at different tubes down the road. Only complaint is the remote. 5k preamp and 50 cent remote. Kind of cheesy. Not enough to be displeased with anything, just an observation.
@billpete do you recall how the power supply looked when unpacking it, and was the umbilical cord pinched or jammed inside the cardboard box or anything like that? Was the shipping box in good condition when you received it? Checking my own, yes the power supply gets warm. However, it does not get to be excessively hot. Next time I have mine powered on for a day, I may have to use a meter and measure how warm it gets and others could do the same.
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To @billpete , I fired up the system later today and checked after work. Results, on a scale of 1-10, and 0 being room temperature at 68 degrees, and let's say 10 is scorching hot to the touch where you can't leave your hand on more than 10 seconds without feeling burned - this is what I can share. Rear/Back, 1 Top Rear, 1 Top Middle, 2 Top Front 3 Front Face, 7-8 The front is where the umbilical cord gets plugged in. The face does get pretty warm. About as hot as my Pure Class A 50w solid state amp gets and it's biased up pretty good. Hopefully that helps. If not let me know and I'll get temp gauges out this weekend. |
@billpete if you are using the EH 6SN7s now, I'll share this. Like others, I used them to burn in new caps in the amp, and pulled them back out, placing them in their original tube boxes in the SLP-98 box and sitting in the rafters right now. The original / older version of the SLP-98 with the soft rounded edge knobs on front is voiced a little softer, sweeter. The newer version SLP-98 with the sharp edged knobs can be a little more detailed, a tad more open, and worse [etchy or grainy sounding] so with the lowest cost EH tubes Cary installed in them new. They did this from the factory (or old Dennis days) did knowing just about 95% of the owners were going to either A) swap in their best vintage 6SN7s, or B) some new reissue copy tube they liked to burn for longer even more. My [stored away] vintage Sylviania 6SN7GT tubes are open and more detailed. They are not nearly as lush as the tubes I'm currently using. My currently installed [recently new] PSVANE CV181 MKII in front, and TJ Full Music 6SN7GTs in the rear give the best balance of open and smooth for my system today. If I want more even more smoothness retained, I just remove the rears and replace with another pair of PSVANE in the back. If I want a tad more detail, and still no etch or grain, I replace the fronts for a full matching quad of the TJ Full Music. A tip to share later... Right now, I'm intermixing both with PSVaNE in front and TJ FM in rear. The former designer (after Dennis) discussed this with me a few times. It works. I like keeping two quads of each, where I can swap them all in, or half in, if that makes sense. Right now, past two years I'm sticking with half of each type.
The interconnect cables make a difference too. I have all Cardas Clear Reflection ICs now for a smooth musical sound. If I want a tad more detail and air, I can swap in my other pair of Aparture Silver-over-Copper ICs. This is what I really like about this preamp. I use it with my Monoblock KT120 tube amps or with my 50w pure Class A solid state amp both on rotation. Hope this helps. Good fun. |
Check this 2019 thread, keeping this in the family here on Agon. Some of the regulars and good old forum friend Almarg weighed in on this one too when he was around. It’s not as critical but some people follow it. See the part about different recordings and other components in the system that are related. Almarg is still here in spirit! -------- https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/impact-of-phase-inversion-by-preamp |
Best not to follow my advice on this. For you to decide. I turn mine off if I know I’m likely to leave the whole system off more than a few days. I do set to Standby for.a little bit before I turn it on though. |
Yes, my speaker wires are inverted / reversed at the speakers. + positive wire to - negative binding post on speaker. - negative wire to + positive binding post on speaker. |
Wide open. |
Hi @billpete and yes, that's what I was asking about. Good to know. Now that you are getting use to it the sound with the current tube set, there can be room to grow for sure. When my 98 was new, it came with the four standard EH tubes, it was okay, yet not close to where it ended up staying the past 4-5 years. A few times I did rotate back through the new EH, TungSol, and a few others that were nice, but not the best. While I still have some of my vintage sets yet I ended up settling on new re-issue tubes that matched better with my system. Good Luck to you and yours on the next steps whatever you decide to do. |
@immatthewj apologize I probably should have clarified that early on, I did not run the gold pin EH, and cannot speak for those, I was referring more to the original EH which came stock in my 98 and those are metal pin, not gold pin. @billpete there are two pairs of course, 2 - 6SN7 buffer cathode followers, 2 - 6SN7 line stage. The front two are for the gain stage and apparently play a crucial role in amplifying the signal before it is sent to the output stage. Most recommend placing higher-quality tubes in these positions to achieve better sound quality. I’ve played a bit putting the more transparent in the front, and then vice-versa, with the softer ones in front. Whatever sounds signature I want, I put the opposing pair in the rear as one approach. Another aspect I like about this preamp and why I keep it. Gold Pin EH - probably best to share your experience here for others as I’ve never tried them, and just jumped up to other tubes as those gold pins came out later. |
