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Posted

I have not been overly xcited about any of the cary stuff I have heard/owned in general. The 300b amp is good not great unless heavily modded the KT88 amps are ok not great as well. This amp screams capitalizing on the headphone market and looks like it was designed by someones impression of what the 16-21 y/0 segment of the hobby may want.

I hope I am wrong as it would be great to get a manufacter with the size and reach into the mainstream audio market that Cary has but my gut says discontinued in short order.

Posted
I have not been overly xcited about any of the cary stuff I have heard/owned in general. The 300b amp is good not great unless heavily modded the KT88 amps are ok not great as well.

Boy that's ugly.

Cary deserves credit for being a big player in the tube and SET revival. Also, the 805 is a beautiful amp.

CAD805AE.jpg

But otherwise it is all a bit underwhelming. As you mention, there are some real issues with the amp designs, not only in sound quality, but also in basic abuse of tubes. I used to own a 303-200 cd player, but I designed my own DAC that sounds better, and if I can do that, then there is something wrong.

I do like their knobs, though.

s3-1.jpg

Posted

One thing I find funny is the text, which often claim Class A or Single Ended operation when it is clearly not or clearly stated otherwise in the spec form that's not too far away from the marketingese text...

Posted

I am hoping to get a listen to one next week. I believe the local distributor may have a couple. The only Cary item I have listened to was a 306 CDP. I thought it was excellent.

Agreed Xciter as a name, sucks big time.

Posted

With the exception of the red "Xciter" it looks like the other Cary integrateds. Paired with the dac it looks good. My only complaint is the price. I had an SLI-80 integrated and it was a good amp but at the retail of $3,800 I would rather spend my money elsewhere.

  • 5 months later...

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