Conrad Johnson Classic 120se vs. Cary Audio Design CAD120 MKII?

@bluethinker66 by chance have you heard any of the older gear from Cary or older generation components from CJ?

The reason I ask is I’ve owned multiple Cary units and friends with CJ who own both. Personally I’ve listened to more of the older version units vs the more modern ones. In fact, we’ve been in discussion this week about this particular topic.

I can share the Cary 120 is going to sound a little different than some some of the other Cary units folks have mentioned here. And, the same goes for the latest "se" version of CJ too. I’d recommend visiting the conradjohnson owners forum too.

My recommendation is you take extra time to speak with owners of both on phone calls and discuss in more detail sharing with them more about type of sound you enjoy more - the older lush sound or the newer modern sound some of these units have, fwiw. A buddy of mine just received his older version CJ unit today, preferring it over some of the newer SE designs as one example. We agreed one thing, "it all comes down to preference, and newer designs are not always better for everyone".

@bluethinker66 I actually went and demoed the xa160.8 amps (they didn’t have the xa60.8 amps available to demo, the xa160.8 are too expensive for me), and wasn’t terribly impressed. I was expecting to be blown away, but I wasn’t. Maybe they were not warmed up sufficiently?

Can you share a little more and describe what was missing for you with the xa160.8 amps? Did you bring them home or hear them somewhere else? How long did you let them stay powered up before sitting down doing any critical listening? (yes, if they had been sitting a while that first warmup for 24hrs helps, a lot). I checked out your speakers. Reading above about your larger room space to fill, high ceilings, open room setting, and the desire to stay away from mono amps - makes me think you’re going to end up needing a fairly capable and robust stereo amp to fill the house if that’s what you really want. Helps to know if you like a more open/large and detailed sound or something a bit smoothed over, not so forward or detailed. Also helps to know if you have carpeted areas or lots of hard floor surfaces in these large open spaces adjacent to your audio system listening space.  

@bluethinker66 in an effort to keep it short, a demo at most audio stores has rarely given me enough to go on. If it’s not in my room, sources, cables, speakers, it’s a crapshoot as to what yer gunna get. A 2-week home demo at your place can reveal an entirely different type of result. Noting your list of nice gear, bet you already know this.