Cary SLP 98 vs Benchmark LA4

Take a look at the Universal 6 or 12SN7 preamp from Mellow Tone Kits. You can buy it assembled if you want. I had the Cary SLP-98 many years ago and replaced it with an Emotive Audio Sira and then the Epifania, which I still own.

I have many nice pairs of NOS 6SN7 tubes and wanted to use them instead of them just sitting in storage so I built this kit. I'm going by memory but I think this preamp sounds better than the Cary. The tube filaments are powered by a SMPS, so you can swap between 6 volt and 12 volt tubes, which means 12SN7 tubes. And in addition, with tube socket convertors you can also use 12AU7 and 6GU7, 6FQ7, and 6CG7 tubes. It's a very musical preamp and fun for tube rolling. 

jdal

Thanks. It is interesting. I may pick one up to have my son build it. He wants to learn how to do this stuff anyway. Might be kind of fun. I'll probably still be searching for something with a remote but if this thing can sound better then an SLP 98, who knows. I do like the types like Cary (and this) with tubes out in the open. Makes rolling much easier and I do have a penchant for tube rolling. Intriguing suggestion and certainly very reasonably priced.

FYI the Benchmark LA4 can be tried out at home for 30 days.

To my (admittedly elderly) ears it is totally transparent and uncolored.

The LA4, like their other products has an astounding S/N ratio, 137db if you're using the balanced outputs, (as you should), vs the 88db for the Cary.  Plus with three balanced outputs it makes it easy to add a sub or subs.

Retired and tony

The LA4 has great test numbers and specs. As we all know, there is more to it than good specs or tests. Plenty of hot discussions about that here. The Benchmark is not exactly what I was looking for but listening to the conversation with John Siau, made me at least consider it. I really want to try a tube preamp that has a remote, is designed to push two amplifiers and offers both XLR and RCA connections. Narrows it down pretty well. Thanks again for your input.