CARY AUDIO CAD 300 SEI INTEGRATED CLASS A AWARD WINNING. SWEET!

Beautiful Cary 300SEi single ended triode amp. Legendary sound quality and convenience in one package. Comes with manual and original box as well as meter to make setting bias easy. No major flaws. Rating 7 for age but looks pretty nice as you can see in the pictures. This was a good customer trade in. It is probably a few years old but not sure of the exact age. Tubes are all good and amp is working great.

Paypal adds 3% Checks welcome. Will consider trades.
I am also an authorized dealer for Legacy Speakers, Auralic, Resonessence, and Triangle Art. Coincident, and NAT Audio.

CARY AUDIO CAD 300 SEI INTEGRATED CLASS A

CARY CAD 300 SEI - THE FINEST SINGLE ENDED TRIODE, PURE CLASS A, INTEGRATED STEREO TUBE AMPLIFIER AT ANY PRICE!

A fast tight bass, warm fluid mids, super smooth highs. Very three dimensional, holographic. Very Musical.

CAD 300 SEI
integrated amplifiers

15 watts per Channel, Single Ended Triode design, Pure Class A, Integrated Stereo Amplifier with 300B output tubes. 3 stereo input pairs, Standard with remote volume control. Metallic blue chassis with clear coat finish. ZERO feedback design.

Circuit TypeSingle-Ended Class A Power Output15 watts Input Sensitivity. 42 Volt for full output Noise and Hum-90 dB below full output Frequency Response 20 Hz to 23 KHz +/- .75 dBInputsCD, AUX1, AUX2, Headphone jack
Tubes1 ea - 6SN7 Input
2 ea - 6SN7 Driver
2 ea - 300B Output Power Transformer1 ea - EI Laminate, 200% Duty Cycle Output Transformer(s)2 ea - EI Laminate Air Gap, 200% Duty Cycle Resistors1% Metal Film Capacitors Oil-Filled Coupling Power Supply Capacitors 2 ea - 1200µF@250 VDCAC Cord3 Conductor, Detachable AC Power Requirements 117/234 VAC @ 50/60 Hz

STEREOPHILE:

It was unmistakable, however, that the 300SEI communicated the music in a way I'd never experienced before. There were an immediacy and a palpability to the sound that were breathtaking. I don't mean a sonic immediacy, such as a forward character, but a musical immediacy that riveted my attention on the music. On the superb new classical-guitar duo Baroque Inventions (Dorian DOR-90209), for example, I had the distinct impression of sitting in front of the two guitarists in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The 300SEI benefited from the low playback level called for by the instrumentation, producing a realistic level with this small-scale music.

Switching to the 96dB-sensitive Infinity Composition P-FRs (which also have a powered woofer) really let the 300SEI open up. The amplifier's limited dynamics and the top-octave air missing with the Genesis were largely restored when the Cary was driving the Compositions. I could also get a totally satisfying listening volume from the 11W amp—with room to spare. In fact, the 300SEI cruised comfortably on most music when driving this easy load. The 300SEI's ability to involve me in the music was heightened by the Compositions' high sensitivity. The 300SEI's sound was ultrasmooth and liquid, but not in a colored, euphonic way. Instead, I felt as though I was hearing only the music, and not the music overlaid with electronic hash. The sound was totally devoid of grain, brittle textures, edge, and stridency. My wife put it best when she said, "The sound doesn't abrade you"—an interesting choice of words for a non-audiophile. The midrange and treble cleanliness, smoothness, and astonishing liquidity gave saxophone a warm, round, burnished sound that lacked any trace of grain or glare. Vocal sibilance was less objectionable, with less of a hashy, intrusive character.

This liquidity and lack of electronic artifact produced a relaxation and intimacy with the music that made me want to play records and CDs long into the night. In fact, I spent night after night totally immersed in the musical experience provided by the 300SEI and the Compositions.

Although the presentation was silky smooth, I don't want to give you the impression that the 300SEI sounded syrupy, rolled-off, or overly romantic at the expensive of resolution and accurate timbre. The 300SEI was good at resolving detail, which is partly why this amplifier was so involving. But the detail wasn't thrust on me, instead sounding subtle in a way that invited me into the music. The detail was there but was understated and refined.

Instrumental timbre sounded astonishingly real—a quality most apparent on violin. When you hear violins in a concert hall, they're never shrill, screechy, or strident. So it was with the 300SEI, which reproduced solo and massed violins with a warmth and beauty unmatched by any electronics I've had in my system. Similarly, the 300SEI's rendering of the human voice was glorious. The amplifier restored the human quality to vocals, making them more lifelike, present, palpable, and expressive. Listen to Doug MacLeod's Come to Find (AudioQuest AQ-CD1027) through the 300SEI to hear this presence and directness of expression I'm describing. The 300SEI's portrayal of the harmonic structure of instruments and voices just sounded more like the real thing, with less of the mechanical, synthetic sound we've assumed has been inherent in music reproduction.