what happened to Cary 500MB?


I came across a review from '05 of the Cary 500 mono blocks, and they thought they were outstanding!! So I researched some more, these are supposed to be amazing for SS, everyone's stoked and then, by mid'06 - nothing. Nary a mention. Can't find any used ones.
Still on Cary's website, though.
What happened? Maybe no one knows (like where the Federal Reserve has been lending money - sorry - I digress) - or did they "fall out of favor"? Although I didn't come across anything negative about them??
24phun

Showing 9 responses by ajackson1

Macdadtexas, u a funny man - lol. I was one of those who made such an offer b\4 one came up for sale.
Well Drubin, just like most audiophiles, my story has been long and full of turbulence. During the time I had both of these amps, I had the Paradigm S8, Wilson Sophia. These were both sold and currently have a custom speaker designed by Tony Gee (http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Andromeda%20Mk-II.html). Regardless, the Cary 500 sounded better on all these speakers – IMO. The spectrons I had had the V-Caps and the Bybee.

If u check out the for sale listing, the Cary 500MB seldom come up for sale. In 2008 and early 2009 they were being listed for 3000-3500, now when they do come up they list for 4000 and still fly off the shelf within a week. So there u have it my friend.
I have one and could not be happier. Really great amp for the price. There is one listed now, you may want to grab it if you really interested.
my vote is for the Cary also. I sold the Cary last year and bought a Spectron. The spectron did not work out and ended up buying another Cary.
Don't let this discussion stop you from checking out the Spectron. They may very well work for you, but I clearing prefered the Cary. Well another thing that actually made the Cary work so well for me is the fact that I do have the Cary SLP 05 pre-amp so it was a perfect match.
Russe41, Probably just a bad day, cause I call and email Cary over the past few weeks and go the same excellent support.
McCormicks Input Imp is a little too low for the SLP's output Imp of 400ohms. there will be some bass rolloff. There are several threads that discuss this in more detail than this, actually, check this out http://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/906cary/index4.html