Twenty-Five Years in the Making: Cary Audio's CAD-805RS
ary Audio's CAD-805 single-ended-triode (SET) mono amplifiers have has been in continuous production for 25 years, receiving several "generational updates" along the way. The new CAD-805RS ($15,995 per pair) includes several changes to the circuit that, according to Cary Audio, "significantly increase performance over the previous CAD-805AE." The CAD-805RS continues to operate in pure class-A up to 27 watts, its massive power supply allowing the amp to produce a rather un-SET-like output of over 50 watts total. Cary supplies two different output tubes with the amp, a 211 and an 845, to allow owners to use the tube of their choice, or simply change tubes to produce a different set of sonic strengths. The full tube complement is two 6SN7 input tubes, one 300B driver tube, and the 845 or 211 output tube. The CAD-805RS uses "two very impressively sized transformers" along with four electrolytic capacitors. The CAD-805RS includes a meter on the front panel for
setting bias, along with a rotary knob for setting global negative feedback to a maximum
of 10dB. Around back are both RCA in XLR inputs and 4-, 8-, and 16-ohm speaker outputs. |
