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It takes courage to buy an amp like the Cary CAD-805C—so retro in its technology and its look.

"You bought those," my friend Pavel said, referring to the CAD-805C monoblocks in my listening room. "Wait till I tell my friends back in Russia. We couldn't wait to get rid of tubes."

Ha-ha-ha.

Or kcha-kcha-kcha, as they say in Russia, there being no h in Russian. It is thus that Handel, Haydn, and Horowitz are transformed into Gandel, Gaydn, and Gorowitz. And Dennis Had, President of Cary Audio Design,…

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

If you don't hate it, you may love single-ended triodes.

Digression
One of the great joys of discovering single-ended triodes is that you may start enjoying certain kinds of music that you find largely unlistenable with non-SET triode amps. Take chamber music, for instance.

"Yes, take it," you say. But wait.

If…

I'm reminded of turntables 20 years ago, when quartz-lock mechanisms were all the rage—to regulate but not really stabilize the speed. The quartz-lock mechanism would continually adjust the speed of the motor so that the speed was always changing, microsecond by microsecond. This was likely one reason why an AR, a Linn, or a Rega, all without…

When Dennis Had, of Cary Audio Design, heard that I was listening to the JMlab Micro Utopia speakers, he offered to send me a pair of Cary CAD-805C tube amplifiers.

"Should be a great combination. Besides, I'd like to visit and listen to the Micro Utopia. And you've got one of the only pairs in North America at the moment."

"I've already reviewed the 805s," I told him.

"You haven't heard the latest version."

The Cary CAD-805C has become a classic. First introduced in 1991 as the Cary…

Because the Cary CAD-805, like any tube amplifier, has multiple output taps (further complicated in the case of the 805 by the presence of a choice of feedback settings), I chose to perform a cross-section of diagnostic tests. Most of the measurements were made with 5dB of feedback—the setting chosen by Dick Olsher for most of his listening evaluations—with selected additional measurements presented at 0dB and 10dB of feedback. In the case of the latter two, the 8 ohm tap was used with an 8 ohm load. Also, only a few select measurements were made into a 16 ohm…

Description: Single-ended monoblock amplifier using a directly heated triode output stage. Power output: 25W (14dBW) class-A1, 50W (17dBW) class-A2 into 4, 8, and 16 ohms.
Dimensions: 12?" W by 10" H by 24" D. Weight: 60 lbs.
Serial numbers of samples tested: 929968 & 69 (1994); not noted (1998, 2001).
Price: $7495/pair (1994); $8995/pair (2001).
Approximate number of dealers: 65.
Manufacturer: Cary Audio Design, 111A Woodwinds Industrial Court, Cary, NC 27511. Tel: (919) 481-4494. Fax: (919) 460-3828. Web: www.caryaudio.com.

"If either of these amplifiers is RIGHT...the other must be WRONG."

Editor John Atkinson wrote that cover line for our January 1994 issue (Vol.17 No.1). Two amps shared the cover. Each was reviewed inside.

Dick Olsher, aka Toob Man, did the honors for the Cary CAD-805, while Thomas J. Norton considered the solid-state Krell KSA-300S. TJN performed test-bench measurements on both amps.

The face-off was fascinating: Subjective vs objective. Tube vs solid-state. Retro vs modern. Monoblock vs two-…

Sure, it's easy (except for cost) to try different components or interconnects, even speakers—but room arrangements immediately invoke the Spouse Acceptance Factor and other domestic concerns. How often have you…

The Channel button selects whether the left…

These were transferred to the PARC and the measurements repeated. The results (figs.2 and 4), revealing a reduction in irregularity and overall lowering of bass levels compared with the midrange. If the frequency scale were logarithmic, the overall smoothing would be more visually apparent. Note that the measured acoustical attenuations are all less than the calculated…