2. amps-preamps
  3. 193759-198816

Cary SLP 98 users, past and present, are there any left?

Recently purchased the above mentioned preamp in Jaguar red, has phono section and Lundahl MC upgrade, also Hexfred rectifiers and is direct-coupled. Most of that means little to me but I know the upgrades matter. I am very pleased to far with what I hear and I am listening to nearly new cheap tubes. I'm going to burn them in awhile before deciding what to look for in tube rolling. I have yet to try the phono section as I use my Cary PH301 phono pre and SAEC SUT. Listening to LP12 with Linn Karma LOMC. It all sounds very damn good to me. CD's are easier on the ears than they used to be. I think the tubes tame them down a tad. Currently listening to them on a very old Pioneer DVD player V7400. I think it may sound better than my 20 bit Denon which is up for repairs. 

Cut to the chase, just wanted you guys to know the electronics, front end anyway. The first time I tried the new Cary, I had the umbilical crossed up and only the phono stage seemed to engage. The PS got quite warm. It still runs warm and that is the question. How warm should it run? It's certainly not too hot to touch but it is warm, I'd say twice as warm as my PH301 PS, which is about the same case. It does sound very good. I'm just hoping that I didn't cause harm in my first session. Was only a few minutes but knew something was wrong and found that the umbilical was the problem. I was shocked that it was possible to put it together incorrectly. Never had that trouble on the PH301.

Anyway, overall, I am very pleased and know that I will likely be looking at different tubes down the road. Only complaint is the remote. 5k preamp and 50 cent remote. Kind of cheesy. Not enough to be displeased with anything, just an observation.

billpete
immatthewj
2,654 posts
 

 It seems very odd to me that Cary would make a preamp this way but the manual clearly states that you have to wire your speakers the reverse of normal. 

@billpete , a few years ago (I've lost track) before I bought my '05 I saw a '98 listed on either Uncle Kevin's site or on Cary's preowned section, and I was interested in it and giving it some consideration. After downloading the manual and reading it,  I remember posting a question on Audio Asylum asking why a manufacturer would intentionally design a preamp as phase inverted.  Someone answered, and I cannot remember the answer which means I probably did not understand it.  I'll see if I can find that question on AA and if so I'll tell you what I was told then . . . but I don't have high hopes because the search function there is not as good as it is here and since I deleted my membership there I cannot log in and find it by retrieving my old posts.

Anyway, you did say that you are going to reverse your + & - hookups at your speakers, and I am thinking why not.  After all, as I typed before--easy and free.  After reading the responses and through that thread that was posted, I am inclined to now think that it won't make an audible difference, but I'd still say to try it.

As far as what you said about this being why maybe some source material just sounds bad, that is the same thing I was thinking after I finished reading that thread.  But now, I am thinking probably not.  Regardless, with some of those CDs that meet that criteria (just don't sound very good) I think maybe I will try them with the phase switch of my CDP set to inverted just to see if they sound any better.

erik_squires
16,554 posts
 

OP:

 

Worth pointing out that most multiway speakers need to reverse the polarity on one driver or another.  That's normal.

By convention (but not requirement) the woofer is in positive polarity and then drivers above that may be flipped as needed.   In a 2-way it's common to see the tweeter inverted, in a 3-way the midrange is often.  Depends on how the phase/frequency alignment works out.

Best,

 

Erik

erik_squires
16,554 posts
 

The inversion in the preamp happens when you have a single tube gain stage. The famous Conrad Johnson PV10 and related pres were the same way. CJs philosophy was to minimize circuitry as much as possible so an additional tube just for polarity inversion seemed counter productive.

Personally I absolutely cannot tell absolute phase and don’t want to learn. 😆

Also, if memory serves, the phono stage in a PV10 was served by an additional single stage, inverting the phono inputs relative to line level.

I will stop here qnd say no more so Ralph can add a couple of pages of caveats, and exceptions to this. 🤣

billpete OP
209 posts
 

@erik_squires 

@immatthewj 

Have inverted pos neg speaker wires. Wil let you know what I hear. AR9's are 4 way and have 5 speakers. I tried the battery phase test and found nothing. Not sure what went wrong. 

I am truly baffled by all of this as to how much is in phase and out. All the participation is greatly appreciated. 

erik_squires
16,554 posts
 

@billpete 

The battery test will only tell you which way the woofer goes.  It should move one way or another.  The crossovers up  above will filter DC and prevent you from learning much more.  If you aren't getting much movement, consider a 9V battery, or C/D cell. 

More to discover