Cary Audio AE-3

Irrenhaus

Hi all

For some time I have been thinking of replacing my B&K 3090 Pre. I don't have the remote and is a PITA to set up, even with the Harmony remote.

So today I have taken myself into a tube preamp. Just got this one home and is warming up and the beers are in the fridge. It has a pair of RAYTHEON 6SN7WGT don't know how good they are. This is my first time into tubes. As for the amp I will use my Parasound 2125.

I got this one out of a Santa Rosa, CA store very nice place with good new and use gear...

Some pics:

Cheers

ZLTFUL

Early to mid 50s milspec tubes...they get mostly good reviews.

tonyb

Sweet man, I'd have Dennis upgrade that to the DJH. Nice pre for not a lot of scratch. Mini review maybe ?

kevhed72

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Early to mid 50s milspec tubes...they get mostly good reviews.

Not to high-jack the thread, but are you saying at some point all the best tubes will be gone - I know nothing of tubes...

Irrenhaus

tonyb wrote: »

Sweet man, I'd have Dennis upgrade that to the DJH. Nice pre for not a lot of scratch. Mini review maybe ?

That will come. So far did some listening last night and was really impress. I heard things from the Ushers that never heard before. They even got a better bass response. I use some HD tracks and even mp3 tracks sounded much better. I will try latter with the Linn's and start with some SACD's

Cheers
Rey

Oldfatdogs

Its amazing what a couple little tubes can do for the setup.
Enjoy.

Dan

tonyb

Oldfatdogs wrote: »

Its amazing what a couple little tubes can do for the setup.
Enjoy.

Dan

Quiet....before someone comes along and accuses you of not listening to the recording as intended on the crappy recorded cd. You know tubes add those 1st order harmonic distortions, flavor, coloration not found on those well recorded cd's. LOL

Seriously, talk to Cary about mods for that pre, heard they make a substantial improvement. Or....I'll swap you a half naked pic of H9 surrounded by circus midgets for the pre. Don't ask either how that pic came into my possession.

Oldfatdogs

Quiet....before someone comes along and accuses you of not listening to the recording as intended on the crappy recorded cd. You know tubes add those 1st order harmonic distortions, flavor, coloration not found on those well recorded cd's. LOL

Tony I have been accused of much worse.I guess I should have said in my opinion.

doctor r

I had the matching phono pre (MM only) and it performed well. At some point you need to open the bottom and take a look. One of the original upgrades was large Jensen oil in paper capacitors (large copper/yellow in color) the other original mod was hexfred diodes in the power supply. Many of these were originally kits. My phono responded really well to different tubes and I have a few pairs of Sylvania 6SN7 (GTA and GTB) that I can set you up with very reasonably. I really liked my unit and it was only displaced by a much more advanced unit. The capacitor upgrade and hexfreds are pretty easy and you could undertake them yourself if they are not already done. Only way to know is to look. The one complaint people had about these units is there output is pretty high so they match better with power amps with less gain.
Rick

Irrenhaus

Okay so I am getting my first 2 DSD audio files. I will try to test them tonight on the rig. I will like to see how they sound with the SDA's

Patricia Barber-Modern Cool
Miles Davis-Kind of Blue

Cheers

tonyb

Great choices too. Let us know what you hear bro. The DJH is on my short list.

Irrenhaus

tonyb wrote: »

Great choices too. Let us know what you hear bro. The DJH is on my short list.

What can I say Patricia is amazing her voice is deepening and the bass is great. I still getting my jaw in place. Miles,,,, well amazing and this is DSD to PCM on the Oppo. I am thinking of getting a TEAC UD-501 I don't think you can beat a DAC on that price range that can do DSD.

Listening to Tool now and it also sounds great...............and have not try the SDA's yet

Cheers
Rey

tonyb

Hook it up to the big boys dude, that's the impression I'm waiting for. LOL

Irrenhaus

tonyb wrote: »

Hook it up to the big boys dude, that's the impression I'm waiting for. LOL

That is the plan. Busy week this one. But for the coming weekend sure.... I can wait also....lol

Irrenhaus

Hi all

So this is a newbie question about tubes. Sorry if its is dumb.

So last night I did some more listening to the pre. Sorry I know a review is late but is coming. At the end of my listening I turn the Pre off before anything else ( not a good practice) the thing is I can still here the music coming from the Oppo and was even able to control the volume from the Pre while it was off. Is this normal behavior.

Cheers

Dennis Gardner

its normal as the capacitors in electronics hold charges much like a battery, so when you turn the unit off, the capacitors discharge slowly just like a small battery would. Its all good!!!

Welcome to tubes!