Cary Audio Factory Tour

Hi All,

yesterday (Sunday) the local chapter of the audiophile society organized a tour of the Cary Audio factory. There were some 30 of us that showed up for the event & each of us was welcomed by a big smile & warm handshake by Dennis Had himself. After we all assembled in the lobby area, Dennis provided us lunch! :prost. Since the conf room was too small for all of us, we had to eat in the factory on the assembly tables where the equipment itself is soldered/assembled, etc. We were all very careful not to drop food into the partially assembled amps, preamps, etc. But it was fun to sit in one of the assembly line workers seats & picture in one's minds eye what the job would have looked like on a regular working day.
On the table that I chose, I had a partially assembled 2-ch power amp from their Cinema series. Both power amp modules had been assembled into the main chassis on either side. There was a huge xformer in the middle & 3 honking big 33,000uF capacitors of the power supply. These caps were 3" in diameter & atleast 4" tall!

After lunch Dennis gave a factory tour - showed us where the chassis & front panels were silked screened, where the custom-made xformers were potted with wax to prevent humming, where the daily-use parts inventory was kept, where the Cary Audio portfolio gear was assembled, where the AES porfolio gear was assembled, where the QA was done, where the break-in was done & where the packaging was done.
Close to the xformer dept, there was a loading dock where there was a HUGE wooden crate containing gear that just came back from the CEDIA show in Denver, CO. this crate must have been as big as those metal containers on a container ship!

Dennis informed us that in the beginning, when Cary Audio was started in 1990, his gear 90% export & 10% USA/domestic. The huge markets for Cary were (& remain): Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan.
However, today the shipments are flipped - 60% USA/domestic & 40% export to SE Asia & Europe. Dennis also informed us that 62% of the revenues come from 2-ch, 14% from solid-state & the rest (24%) from HT, which is steadily growing & taking over. He told us that they have gone 0-->24% in about 5 years in the HT portfolio.

Dennis informed us that all his digital gear (CDP & DVDP) are designed & manuf in Hong Kong by one of their key distributors who has now become a personal friend & key allie. Looks like these fellows are doing a very good job as the Cary CDPs have quite a following.

Then we went into his listening room where he was using one of the Cary CDPs - I did not look @ the model number. The preamp/pre-processor was one from the Cinema line that used 4 12AU7 tubes in the output stage. The cover was removed & all could see its guts. This preamp was a fully balanced preamp. Hence the connection the power amp was thru an XLR cable - Kimber Hero. The CDP to pre was also an XLR KImber Hero. The power amp was a CAD-120S, which was a 120W/ch KT88-based fully balanced stereo power amp. LOts of tubes sticking out from the top. Again, I believe that this power amp belonged to the Cinema series.
In the room was also a pair of 805C Anniversary Edition but they were not hooked up. The speakers were Dynadio Confidence C4. beautiful looking speakers & superb sound. Best of all - the room was completely UNTREATED! Yet the sound was very, very, very good. The treat in that listening room was a prototype power amp based on the radio transmitter tube 572B! This little amp output just 7W/ch, pure class-A in the config that Dennis managed to cook-up so far. Upon my request, Dennis hooked it up to the COnfidence C4 & my jaw dropped when I heard the sound - fantastic, glorious, smooth (in comparison to the KT88 based CAD-120S that was playing before), imaging like a SOB!!
The C4, I was informed, was a 4 Ohm load but an easy one. That 7W/ch power amp could play loud enough to drown out any conversation in that room. It was quite amazing & very enjoyable. In the final rendition, that 572B power is going to have a 300B tube drive it because the intention is to make it a 70W/ch, pure class-A stereo amp.

Finally, Dennis showed his generosity by giving away an AES AE-3 line stage preamp. We had a raffle drawing & one of the participants won that nice looking preamp.

So, all in all, the tour was an excellent excursion. All of us had fun looking at, touching & hearing world-class audio gear. Our hosts, Dennis Had & his wife Donna, were very gracious & generous hosts. So, we all came back with large grins on our faces..... A Sunday afternoon superbly spent!

aks07 schrieb:

That is Class A2 operation. I once built a A2 prototype using the RCA 811A transmitting tube. Gird was positive and driven from the cathode of a pentode. I used 6SN7 > KT66 >811A. 600volts HV, 26volts grid, 5K output. AC heaters. Can’t say I really liked the result. Is sounded pleasant for the tiny time it was in Class A (like the first half watt). But it really was loud!

cool aks07!
thanx for giving us some more info re. similar transmitter tubes.
i must have listened to that prototype for a grand total of 30 minutes in 2 sessions of 15 minutes. I liked it for the full 30 minutes!
maybe the choice od transmitter tube makes big difference in the sound?