To all you Cary SLI 80 owners, I'm looking for tube suggestions


Hello all, I have a one year old Cary SLI 80 HS and I have not changed a thing on it. Same tube set it came from the factory with. KT88's are Psvane, input tubes are JJ's.  It is a sublime match with my Volti Razz speakers. 

My question is this, what have you all tried with rolling tubes? Anyone try output variants? EL34's, KT 77 or 66's. Or have you changed out input tubes and noted and enjoyable difference?

Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

Thank you,

Doug

doyle3433

Showing 2 responses by paradisecom

I'm currently running some vintage Bugle Boy 6922's, vintage Sylvania JAN 6SN7's and a set of E.H. 6CA7s, (biased at 40mA).  This is my favorite combo so far for my Vienna Acoustic speakers.  

With the above combo and a set of Sovtec 6922's it can be a bit too edgy on the top end at higher volumes.  The Bugle Boys take a bit of that edge off.

Before the 6CA7's, I ran a new set of JJ KT77's (biased at 40mA) which are similar, but not quite as much decay in cymbal strikes.

I have also run a set of Ruby 6550's but they were just too soft up top.  I guess if I had a bright speaker, they might be better, but not for me.

Hopefully that helps.

As dogearedaudio stated, Cary told me in an email to not use KT66’s in this amp.