Cary SLI-80 tweaks and improvements?

Your comparison achieved the results I would have predicted.  Cary is a swiss army knife with high power.  Decware keeps it very simple, touches the signal as little as possible, and stays lower power.  

I suggest instead of working on the Cary, you shop for more sensitive speakers and maybe even go SET.  I don't even do push pull any more.  I had a ZMA, it was excellent, but couldn't match an SET.  push pull is a compromise but many make it because it is better than SS and their speakers don't support SET.

Jerry

I looked at changing speakers for a while, but I really like my present speakers, which are Vienna Acoustics.  I have looked at a pair of Omega bookshelves since they are more sensitive and almost bought a pair.  There isn't much else that I have seen that interests me and fits into my budget.  I also thought about picking up a set of those Klipsch RP-600 MII's since they're relatively cheap just to see if I like them.  I still might do that.

I almost think that I'll eventually land on a Decware Torii which should do enough of everything I want.  The just don't come up very often, though.  :\

Cary is a swiss army knife

@carlsbad2  , could you expound upon what you mean by that?

Swiss army knife is my own term for amps that do everything.  The circuit gets complcated, lots of switches and selectors attached to it and each one degrades it a little.  You lose your tube magic and start sounding like a printed circuit board based SS amp.  

It isn't nearly as bad as a few other propular brands.  It is perhaps a the medium swiss army knife that you can carry in your pocket as opposed to the giant one with everything including a fork that just barely fits in the glove box.

I'd like to see a circuit diagram as there are quite a lot of components in the photos I'm seeing.  

Jerry

In the hands of a very skilled tech, you can get a bit more out of the amp and make it more enjoyable with your current speakers. The stock model has the lower grade volume control getting in the way, limited coupling capacitors (may even be dried out), standard wiring to the binding posts, and clearly using limited tubes. I ran Gold Lyon KT88s in mine, and they were decent, not too bad. You could try PSVANE, and we did these in a buddy’s upgraded Jolida amp, they were very nice new.

btw, helped a buddy upgrade his VA speakers, the end result required woofer cone replacements and entire crossover replacements with help of Danny at GR research. In hindsight my friend should just have replaced the factory x-over parts with better parts a few levels up, and left the crossover design alone imo. We tried a simple parts upgrade because he was cheap, but it made a difference. Then the GR upgrade, which I felt was overboard. And, I’ve heard that amp with Klipsch RP600Ms, and would not waste your money IF you can simply get the same tech to replace crossover parts in your existing VAs instead. Just trying to save you money, and cut to the chase, a lot of hype out here imo.

Even if it takes a solid year to find and you have to drive/haul the gear 5hrs away to find the right tech, it can be worth it. Best of Luck.