The SLP98 I owned briefly did not even sound remotely as good as a stock Ming Da MC-2A3. The Cary has a very artificial mid high which works well for certain kinds of music. Bass is worse than the Ming Da despite my attempts to change out the caps inside (Kimber) to things like Dynamicap and Mundorf M Supreme. Tube-rolled it with many NOS 6SN7s but only got marginal improvement. Never changed out the high voltage filter/bypass caps before giving up.
Cary SLP-98 v. Manley Shrimp
I know the Shrimp is somewhat of a "giant killer" but is the Cary leaps and bounds ahead of the Manley i.e., worth the extra $?