bimasta
Addicted Member
I messed up my Cary 2A3 amp. Hoping for some help. It’s not the Cary 2A3 SET — it’s stereo, push-pull, 15WRMS — and it’s not the later Cary 2A3 Integrated. It’s the first amp Cary made, and it put them on the map: it got the small unknown company nationwide distribution. This is the one:
I’d lived in Africa for 10 years. When I moved back to NYC in 1990, I went shopping for a system. I was looking at all the high-end separates — but every dealer told me “If you want the best amp in the store, get that one”, and pointed to the little Cary. It was about $2200, and their other amps sold for 2-to-5 times as much (Audio Research, CJ, Levinson, Krell, Spectral etc). They were cutting their own profit, but doing me a big favor re beauty.
Like some of you, I collect good components, can’t help myself. And I rotate them in and out of the system. It’s fun. For a decade, every musician friend told me “Sell every other amp you have. That little one is the best by far.”
One day a speaker wire came loose at the output terminal. The Cary was in a narrow space; if I reached my arm to the back of chassis, I might push against one of the output tubes and damage it (they’re big and vulnerable, with no cage, as the pic shows). So I took the tube out to be safe (amp off, of course.) I fixed the speaker wire and put the tube back in. I switched back on — and that tube went Fourth of July, a zillion sparks zinging inside the bottle and the anode red-hot. I switched off fast — but those capacitors discharged slowly and the lightshow went on for 20 seconds as I watched in helpless horror.
I put the tube in WRONG (the one on the left). The 2A3 has 4 pins, and no lug to prevent incorrect insertion. The 4 pins have slightly different thickness to avoid this, but the difference is so slight that all the pins fit into any hole in the base, don’t even have to force it.
I rotated tube clockwise 90° WRONG — maybe that’s a clue? Since then, it’s just been sitting, silently begging “Fix me...fix me....”
Do any of you tube wizards have an idea what I damaged? Hopefully something simple like a cap or resistor, which I can replace? I’d like to fix it myself, not just to save $, but because I’m the guilty party and I’d like to clear my conscience. There’s no visible damage inside (no charred ruins) but I can send photos if it helps.
PROBLEM: No schematics. Don’t exist. Cary has no documentation at all. I spoke to Dennis Had years ago, and he said almost every version of that amp was different. For example, mine has 2 toggle switches near the back; I asked what for. He said “Could be to reduce negative feedback. Or to increase negative feedback. Or to reverse phase. Or to mute the ouputs. Or something else. We just put those switches in and played around. We never settled on a reason for them.”
If you can help, please, my gratitude in advance...
I’d lived in Africa for 10 years. When I moved back to NYC in 1990, I went shopping for a system. I was looking at all the high-end separates — but every dealer told me “If you want the best amp in the store, get that one”, and pointed to the little Cary. It was about $2200, and their other amps sold for 2-to-5 times as much (Audio Research, CJ, Levinson, Krell, Spectral etc). They were cutting their own profit, but doing me a big favor re beauty.
Like some of you, I collect good components, can’t help myself. And I rotate them in and out of the system. It’s fun. For a decade, every musician friend told me “Sell every other amp you have. That little one is the best by far.”
One day a speaker wire came loose at the output terminal. The Cary was in a narrow space; if I reached my arm to the back of chassis, I might push against one of the output tubes and damage it (they’re big and vulnerable, with no cage, as the pic shows). So I took the tube out to be safe (amp off, of course.) I fixed the speaker wire and put the tube back in. I switched back on — and that tube went Fourth of July, a zillion sparks zinging inside the bottle and the anode red-hot. I switched off fast — but those capacitors discharged slowly and the lightshow went on for 20 seconds as I watched in helpless horror.
I put the tube in WRONG (the one on the left). The 2A3 has 4 pins, and no lug to prevent incorrect insertion. The 4 pins have slightly different thickness to avoid this, but the difference is so slight that all the pins fit into any hole in the base, don’t even have to force it.
I rotated tube clockwise 90° WRONG — maybe that’s a clue? Since then, it’s just been sitting, silently begging “Fix me...fix me....”
Do any of you tube wizards have an idea what I damaged? Hopefully something simple like a cap or resistor, which I can replace? I’d like to fix it myself, not just to save $, but because I’m the guilty party and I’d like to clear my conscience. There’s no visible damage inside (no charred ruins) but I can send photos if it helps.
PROBLEM: No schematics. Don’t exist. Cary has no documentation at all. I spoke to Dennis Had years ago, and he said almost every version of that amp was different. For example, mine has 2 toggle switches near the back; I asked what for. He said “Could be to reduce negative feedback. Or to increase negative feedback. Or to reverse phase. Or to mute the ouputs. Or something else. We just put those switches in and played around. We never settled on a reason for them.”
If you can help, please, my gratitude in advance...
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