Cary SLP-98L or ARC LS-26?

Cary SLP-98L or ARC LS-26

  • Total voters
    11
Without having heard either, I voted for the Cary thinking more of a classic tube sound.
 
CDLehner said:
And why? :huh:

Thanks
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Do you want a more neutral sound or do you want a preamp that is not really neutral but really fun to listen to? If you want more neutral, go for the ARC. If you want more of the classic tube sound which isn't as neutral but fun to listen to, go with the Cary. The Cary SLP98L reminds me of my Counterpoint SA-5.1 that I loved for many years.
 
mep said:
Do you want a more neutral sound or do you want a preamp that is not really neutral but really fun to listen to? If you want more neutral, go for the ARC. If you want more of the classic tube sound which isn't as neutral but fun to listen to, go with the Cary. The Cary SLP98L reminds me of my Counterpoint SA-5.1 that I loved for many years.
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Yeah; that's going to be the question. I guess it all depends, on which amp I settle with too.

I used to definitely be more "modern" tube, than "old-school/classic" tube; but I'm starting to love the glass, more and more. As long as it's not too golden and fuzzy.
 
Have owned both- the ARC LS25mkii was literally one of the worst preamps I've ever owned. It was noisy, flat, and sounded just like SS. The Ref series is in another league for ARC.

I've owned the Cary twice- while it's a bit warm of neutral, you can tube roll it to your leanings.
 
I'm with the Cary, ARC is not my cup of tea especially if you are going to pair it with the Pass and the Harbeth's. Another option if you want to split the difference may be the Primaluna. I am looking at it as a possibility with the Odyssey Kismet I have coming.
 
+1 on the Cary for its tube sound. Now if you were thinking about an LS27 I might change my vote. I got to hear an LS 27 and it had more of a tube and darker sound with tremendous air and transparency.

You should also consider a BAT preamp. I use a BAT VK51se with my Pass X250 and they make sweet music together.
 
you know i voted cary!!! arc to me is good but the real good stuff is the ones i cant afford to buy. and the inexpensive arc stuff is just ok to my ears. cary has always had a great dollar to sound ratio and you will get more for your money. and ive messed with a slp98 and its a great little pre especially for the reasonable price. and cool looking to boot.
 
Mechnutt said:
+1 on the Cary for its tube sound. Now if you were thinking about an LS27 I might change my vote. I got to hear an LS 27 and it had more of a tube and darker sound with tremendous air and transparency.
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Well a 27 is what I want, of course; but I'm not sure if it's in the cards. You think they're that much different-sounding, huh?

Jack said:
I'm with the Cary, ARC is not my cup of tea especially if you are going to pair it with the Pass and the Harbeth's. Another option if you want to split the difference may be the Primaluna. I am looking at it as a possibility with the Odyssey Kismet I have coming.
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Interesting; so you think PrimaLuna, splits the difference...between the lean sound of ARC, and the richness of Cary? See...I thought the PPPP (PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium pre-amp), was a little too ripe for my tastes. If the Cary is even richer...IDK.

Petro85 said:
you know i voted cary!!! arc to me is good but the real good stuff is the ones i cant afford to buy. and the inexpensive arc stuff is just ok to my ears.
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That's an interesting point; but if I can't swing a 27, I sure as hell can't swing any Ref :(

Maybe I need to start thinking IA...lol.
 
I've owned both, kinda, I sold my Cary 98L for a AR LS27 which I now mate with my SS amp which works ok but not perfect. Tube to tube the AR just doesn't sound right to me a little to transparent maybe with my setup. The Cary tube to my tube mono's was pretty warm but very pleasant with classic rock and jazz and bluegrass instrumentals. I did find the AR did not provide the sound for hard driving loud rock or metal with my setup..

If I had to pick all over again, it would be the Cary.
 
Petro85 said:
you know i voted cary!!! arc to me is good but the real good stuff is the ones i cant afford to buy. and the inexpensive arc stuff is just ok to my ears. cary has always had a great dollar to sound ratio and you will get more for your money. and ive messed with a slp98 and its a great little pre especially for the reasonable price. and cool looking to boot.
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I think this is a rather accurate description of the two product lines. I've owned or tried every Cary preamp built in the last 10 years in my system. From top to bottom, Cary is a great bang for the buck. I especially like the 98 in its price range, new or used. I've also tried the ARC LS-17, Ref 3 and Ref 5 in my system, and have heard the LS-26 in some friends' systems. The LS-26 was known as the "baby Ref 3," and for good reason. It had most of what the Ref 3 gave you for half the cost. I didn't like the LS-17 at all (directly compared to the Cary 98) and have generally found ARC's lesser models underwhelming. The Carys will generally give you more of that tube magic and respond very well to tube rolling. I'm biased towards Cary but I can easily understand someone choosing the LS-26 in this case if they are more attracted to ARC's famous air and transparency.
 
^^ Guys, good stuff. It's tough for me, because I am fairly new to tubes (not a total noob, but limited); and I think the first decision...as some have suggested...is what sound do you like/want? Rich tube-y tubes, or more-linear...best-of-both-worlds, closer-to-SS tubes.

I head, is in staying more middle-of-the-road; I worry about too dark, too rich...too syrupy, too tube-y ;)

But my heart...is starting to embrace glass, more and more. I think I'm more than leaning, toward the Cary at this point; and here are some of the reasons why.

One...you can't tube roll with the ARC; 6H30s may be a "super-tube"...but at least half the fun, is rolling, right? Cary wins that battle, mightily it seems (with 8 tubes, and 3 types to play with).

Two...I can see the argument, about ARCs "affordable" line. Ref is a big leap forward; but if you can't afford it...there is maybe better bang-for-the-buck to be had elsewhere?

But three...I'm starting to sense a theme here. I pulled this, from the WHF review:

Yet despite all this, we’re left wanting a little more punch and rhythmic precision. The combination of these things means that we find ourselves admiring pieces of music more than getting wrapped up in them. The shortfalls aren’t massive, but at this price level we think it’s not unfair to expect more. There are times when even very good isn’t quite good enough, and this is one of them. Verdict: the LS27 is a good, solid effort – and well worth a listen at this price level, but that extra push would see it bag the full five stars.

Now...I take reviews with a grain of salt; but they seem to be echoing the sentiments of the group (the majority anyway). The LS-26/27 are certain plenty good; these things all be relative. I'm sure they are, of course DYNAMITE in their own way. But I also agree with WHF in this regard; at this price...I'd expect an unequivocal 5-star review.

The SLP-98L, is just feeling a little more in my wheelhouse (for the moment ;)
 
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wow!! i never expected to see so many people vote for cary and so few for arc. normally arc has such big fans and so many its always wins a vote
if i remember correctly slp98 has 6sn7's, 12ax7's and 12au7's and a rollers dream. if you go with that you will be a very happy guy, its not real tubey and mushy, but does have that tube lushness that youd expect from from a pre with 8 tubes in it. i hope you get it!!!!good luck Chris, it seems you are doing an entire changeover. a man after my own heart!!
 
I emailed both Cary and Pass about the issue of impedance matching between the SLP-05 and Pass amps, as I had read about the issue on Audiogon and was considering Pass amps at the time. Here is what Cary said in response:

Anthony.

I had not heard of the Pass Labs being a problem. Our head engineer has a pair of huge Pass Labs amps connected to his Sound Labs speakers in
his home and uses various preamps of ours with it including the SLP-05 without any problem. Essentially what you want is for the input
impedance of the amplifier to be about 10 times or more then the output impedance of the preamp.

The output impedance of the SLP-05 RCA is 400 ohms and the balanced is 800 ohms. So 10 x 400 ohms is 4K (4,000 ohms). Most amplifier input
impedances are at least 10K or more. It looks like most of the Pass Labs amps have a 20K RCA input which is more then enough.

I don't know why it would be a problem but maybe check with Pass Labs to see if they know anything.


Here is what Pass said in response:

Dear Anthony,

I'm not sure were you read that the Pass amps and Cary preamp don't get along. Thisis not the case. The Cary preamp has an out impedance of 400 ohms, whichis similar to our preamps, so no problem there.

Letme know if you have any other questions,

Desmond.


 
Hate to tell you, but they are incorrect. The AVERAGE impedance maybe 400 ohms, but as JA notes- this is much much higher at areas over the frequency curve. It will lead to lean bass, specifically. You can see the drop off in the chart, plain as day.

Cary needs to partnered with higher input impedance SS amps such as Krell for example. A 400cx w/ Cary SLP98 is quite a nice rig on the cheap these days.

KeithR

ps. I wanted to run a SLP-05 on my old Pass X250.5, hence my loads of research on the subject.
 
I was about to make a snarky comment in here; and then I remembered...I'm the MOD, lol ;)

Guys...I'm a middle-of-the-roader, if ever there was one. I don't think numbers on paper tell the whole story; but I don't think you can just ignore, sound engineering principles either (and I know jack about EE, so I never get in the middle of those debates).

From a sound perspective...I don't think I'd run a rich-sounding tube pre-amp, into class-A anyway. Might have to try, one of my favorite...all-time; neutral all-arounders...a Belles Ref 150a v2...for the 4th time! :shocking:

(Nah...if anything; I'd go 350 v2 or SA-100 this time)
 
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