Cary Audio SA 200.2 SE power amp (latest version)

@decooney

It isn’t a transformer hum. There’s a slight faint buzzing coming from right speaker and only audible when I put my ears really close to the speaker but would progressively become louder after several hours of use and became really loud and audible from listening position like 8 to 10 feet away from the right speaker. And when I hooked my Classe Sigma class D power amp back and the buzzing went away completely. So gotta be the Cary SA 200.2 ES power amp, not my preamp, not my speaker and not my CD/SACD player.

While the left speaker is dead quiet but it has a completely different issues of its own. Occasionally the sound in the left speaker was cutting out or sometimes in and out and all of the sudden the sound would disappear completely from the left speaker. It happened randomly and intermittently and only happened every once in a while. Doesn’t always happen. Very bizarre.

I recently purchased this amp used here on Audiogon. When I gave the serial # to Cary Audio they told me this amp was manufactured in late 2018 so only couple years old. This is the newest latest SA 200.2 ES version, not the original SA 200.2 version. And this amp weighs in at 65 lbs, not 87 lbs.

@dilatante do you have a different pair of working speakers and different speaker cables you can test with this amp?   

@yowser 

Just want to recap and follow up with you regarding my Cary SA 200.2 ES power amp. I sent it in for repair to Cary Audio in early Dec and just got it back over a week ago. They replaced the transformer and the input board and it kinda solved the humming/buzzing issue in the right channel but not completely and Cary also claimed that the buzz is still present but very faint and we literally have to put our ear right up to the speaker to hear it and didn’t get louder when the amp was left turned on for a day or so with no music playing. that’s what they said.
 

And when I received the amp back over a week ago the buzz/hum is faint and I literally have to put my ear really close to the speaker in order to notice it. I left the amp on with music playing for some 9 to 10 hours continuously and after 9 hours or so I think the buzz/hum in the right channel (right speaker) became somewhat louder and was slightly audible from my listening position which is about 8 feet away from the speaker but my listening room was very very small and very quiet at the time (it was around 1 am at night), but it isn’t as loud as what it used to be before I sent it in for repair, nothing like what it used to be at all. It’s much better now but doesn’t completely go away.
 

And at least now seems like the occasional dropouts in the left channel has been resolved and I haven’t experienced a single dropout in the left channel anymore since after the repair. 
 

Yowser, try leaving your Cary SA 200.2 ES amp on with music playing for 9 hours straight and see if the humming or buzzing would get noticeably louder. 
Thank you.

@dilatante have you swapped in completely different / better shielded interconnects and different speaker cables just for the heck of it to see if anything changes?

While my SA-200.2 was dead quiet, some other adjacent components can generate this  type of low level noise you are referring to. Worth a shot if you’ve not already checked. One of my former SS amps was ultra sensitive to picking up noise like this, fwiw. Best of luck.

I'm using very well shielded interconnects and speaker cables and power cables. My speaker cables and interconnects are Cardas Clear Reflection and as all my power cables are Shunyata Research Delta NR.