This newsletter....
BY MIKE BLAKE APRIL 2013
I did not want to write this newsletter.
So after I wrote it I trashed it and then resurrected new and other attempts at writing something that made sense.
Finally after much nagging from some of you I just wrote what I wrote, for better or worse....here it is.
Firstly. Does South Africa need another tube based product?
If we go back a few years there were a myriad of tube amplifiers coming into South Africa. Some good, some average and some real shockers (excuse the pun). Some of the disgraces found their way (temporarily I am pleased to say) into our store as trade in stuff which we sold to people we didn't like (murderers and robbers.....not nice guys like you).
Thankfully the market in South Africa has seen through this rubbish to shun them to the point where the odd survivor might find it's way onto www.cantsellthisjunkpleasehelp.com. Importers too, got tired of fixing these "good for door stop" stuff and simply stopped bringing them in. Thank goodness.
So why have I not wanted to send this newsletter?
We currently import Manley Labs and Quicksilver tube stuff. Both have done superbly well for us in the past.....well up until about two years ago I should say. That is when Manley prices rocketed upwards and the good old ZAR rocketed downwards resulting in breathtakingly high prices on some of their products. Breathtaking when one considers our philosophy of "value"....but if one considers some of the stratospherically priced competition, still not too bad!!! (Step in Quicksilver - super value).
Don't get me wrong - I still love Manley and would gladly sell this lovely stuff. But sadly at the higher prices. Fortunately not everything in their range was subject to these frightening increases. The Steelhead and Chinook are still wonderful products at great prices - buy them!!!!!
So to write a newsletter about Cary without detracting from Manley and Quicksilver was my dilemma.
So back to the beginning.....
Do we need another tube product??
Yes.
Secondly. Why Cary?
Is it that good? Yes it is.
Their preamplifiers are incredibly impressive from the ridiculously affordable SLP03 fully balanced, cinema bypass, at about R25k to the SLP05 which retails for about R100k and will compete with anything out there.
Their R50k 80SLi uses KT88 tubes is built like a tank puts out 40 or 80 watts (triode or ultra linear) and is finished to a standard exceeding anything out there....including "you know what"!
Then there is their lovely digital stuff....the new age.
So if you want the best phonostage in the world get the Manley Steelhead....the most affordable and superb sounding monoblock power amplifiers get Quicksilver.
.....and if you want something finished and designed to seduce your soul, built to last forever with sublime sound, take a look at Cary.
Why carry on buying ordinary audio when you can get Cary?
More about Cary
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