Comparing Integrateds by Primaluna and Cary


Ok, Primaluna has developed quite an interesting and promising line of integrateds. A Primaluna buyer might well go with Cary as an alternative. Have any of you compared the SOUND of any subset of the following models:

Prologue 1 and 2
Dialogue 1 and 2
Mystere 1 and 2
Cary SLI-80: Signature, F1 with and without direct coupling
Cary SEI-300

Ok that last one is a ringer as it's an SET, but still what are the tradeoffs? And not all of these let you choose triode mode - implications?

No need to limit the comparisons to this group if you have a "hot number" that you want to alert us to, or warn us about!

Fun.
Art
artmaltman

I seem to recall reading some threads here as to one major sub contractor in China doing the assembly for a few major audio makers... one or two were from Europe, I believe too.

The rehtoric that got my attention was an allusion to one companies level of componetry being assembled was of lesser stature than another companies, yet the inferrence there was some substitutios either would or could be interjected to facilitate production... ex. two caps, same values, different levels of quality, being used interchangably, one to the other.

I thought that was plausable briefly, then was pretty certain, some Q. A. on the consignor's end would prevent that from occurring.... well, at least repeatedly.

Sorry I can't be more specific but those threads should still be live.
Mr K- You got me on that one. I got my wires crossed between the AE offerings and PrimaLuna. And I've been a Cary user for over 6 years now too. Shame on me!!
Why does the Upscale web site say the AES stuff is built in the same factory as the Cary stuff? Or is the Cary stuff built in China too?
Dennis Had's second string components would be a much fairer comparison for the PrimaLuna line(they are built in china as well): (http://www.upscaleaudio.com/view_category.asp?cat=29)