McCormack DNA 500 or Cary CAD MB 500?

IME they should both easily have the juice to drive your 86dB Salons, assuming they have a somewhat uniform impedance vs. frequency, and don't dip much below 4ohms. My McCormack drove 87 and 90 dB speakers but I only had the higher 90dB speakers when I owned the Cary. I personally liked the sound of the Cary amps a bit better and if I were in the market, their new SA500.1 monos would be on my shortlist. The McCormack and Cary are both very nice amps but I remember the McCormack being a real beast with regards to bass slam. Still, I liked the musicality and slightly fat bass of the Cary amps. I tried quite a few preamps with the McCormack and enjoyed a Tom Evans Vibe with Pulse, which has a very low output impedance. With tubes, VTL 5.5 sounded good, SF Line 3SE just ok, and Aesthetix Calypso not as good. The Cary's have a higher imput impedance and can accomodate a wider range of tube preamps and the Lamm LL2 Deluxe and CAT SL2 Ultimate both sounded quite good.

Mitch2 I settled with the Cary mono's, i should have them by Thursday or Friday next week. My preamp is not a full balance. When you had them. Did you run them balance or single ended? Is balance the best set up for them? Thank you!!

I tried both. Single-ended sounded just fine. Let us know how you like them.

I've tried a number of amps for my Magnepan 3.6's; the Cary 500's won-out. They are excellent IMO. Power to spare, they do not break a sweat driving the 3.6's in my 17.5 x 26 room... Very highly recommended!!!

Let us know how you like them on the Revels.