Hello Gentlemen,
I too had a sli-80, and had no intentions of selling it. One day I had a Mcintosh 2500 power amp walked into my room. It was a friends who wanted me to sell it for him. Out of curiosity I hooked it up with some sub par speaker and power cables I had laying around. It sounded amazing, ( I had an old c-30 preamp as well) the most "real" sound I had yet to hear out of my Spendors (my then speaker) so I had no choice but to sell the Cary. But, I used that money to buy a slp-98 preamp. I owned another Cary preamp long ago, and I have always liked their sound. I think some speakers ( like my Vandersteen 3a's) might need a bit more power then what the sli-80 is capable of, or it may just be a synergy/voicing thing. If you like the Cary sound and your speakers are fairly efficient, I'm sure you'll love the sli-80. If you have been thinking about sli-80's you will definitely see more of them around. They are beautiful.
I too had a sli-80, and had no intentions of selling it. One day I had a Mcintosh 2500 power amp walked into my room. It was a friends who wanted me to sell it for him. Out of curiosity I hooked it up with some sub par speaker and power cables I had laying around. It sounded amazing, ( I had an old c-30 preamp as well) the most "real" sound I had yet to hear out of my Spendors (my then speaker) so I had no choice but to sell the Cary. But, I used that money to buy a slp-98 preamp. I owned another Cary preamp long ago, and I have always liked their sound. I think some speakers ( like my Vandersteen 3a's) might need a bit more power then what the sli-80 is capable of, or it may just be a synergy/voicing thing. If you like the Cary sound and your speakers are fairly efficient, I'm sure you'll love the sli-80. If you have been thinking about sli-80's you will definitely see more of them around. They are beautiful.