I give up on this Cary Audio 120S......TOTAL POS
 

Been defective from day one. Hummed from day one.

Right channel keeps going out.

New tubes. New caps. All new caps.

What a POS.

No wonder no one owns this amp.

Look for it on eBay.

High end audio. What a joke.

I have better things to do........

No need to sugar coat it; tell us how you really feel. :)

I used to have a pretty high respect for Cary Audio back in the last 90's early 2000s but if you do some searching on the web, it's apparent that they've had some quality control issues. Doesn't seem to be the same company that they used to be. Have you contacted the company to see what's going on with the unit or have you been there done that?

- Buck

Been back to Cary twice and a local tech twice.

I think it's a flawed design or I just got a lemon.

Someone put one 1000 cap on it and left three 630 ones. Come to find out the 630s are all defective from a bad batch. You think they would know this.

Funny how when you know what high end audio is really about it's a different game.


And this is probably one of the BETTER companies!!!!

Sorry to read about your troubles. I've always had good service from Cary and their SLI-80 is one of my favorite pieces of gear, though I know nothing about the 120S.

Oh no. Sorry to hear this. I currently have my pre in service per the other thread. Hoping I have better results. I will report back when the unit makes it back.

Are you sitting with a non-functioning amp now or did someone help you to find and fix the real source of the problem?

I had a similar issue with an amplifier I had upgraded, chasing the wrong bits, to then later find out three hexfreds were essentially bad under load after 3hrs of listening. Blowing fuses and all. Had the amp back for repair a few times (like you) until finally the hexfreds went out entirely. Turns out the upgraded caps, resistors were good, however the newly installed hexfred/diodes were bad - finally went completely out. Then, finally found the bad parts, replaced them all, and so far so good. I was getting aggravated wondering if this amp I decided to (F!@$ with) would ever get fixed and working again, and driving the tech crazy, literally. Was not his fault, it was bad parts with intermittent issues, not easy to detect until the parts went 100% dead finally. 5th time was a charm. Hang in there. Good Luck.

So when you were on this chase - who paid for freight. I am concerned I am on this path. Hopefully not- but I have become the debugger as you have probably seen in my other note. I'll be extremely happy to report good results when they occur!!

I'd like to try different things but want their take on it. I'm trying to get rid of variables. I had hexfreds/diodes replaced as well. But you know my story so I won't drag it on here

Someone mentioned that there was a run of bad Hexfreds. Wonder if you might have one, or more, of them breaking down once they are fully warmed up and loaded? Nothing worse to find then an intermittent problem. You, and the tech trying to find the problem, have my sympathy.

Well I appreciate it Glenn!! We all need talked off the ledge now and then.