WELCOME
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PRODUCT FEATURES
Thank you for purchasing the SA-500.1 power amplifier.
The introduction of the SA-500.1 solid-state power amplifier represents an all new
amplifier design. It embodies a new modular approach that ensures consistency in
performance, and ease of manufacture and serviceability. In implementing the new
design, we have dramatically improved performance and current-handling capacity over
our previous models while still maintaining the highest levels of sonic quality.
The SA-500.1 is a 500 watt monoblock amplifier into 8 ohms, (1000 watts into 4 ohms),
with balanced and single ended inputs. The amplifier exhibits very high current
capability, is stable into low impedance loads, and features 3 dB of dynamic headroom.
When we designed the SA-500.1 power amplifier, one of our primary goals was to create
a product that would give years of consistent and reliable use without any maintenance.
To achieve that goal we took a hard look at the design and choice of components. For
example, we use high-precision metal film resistors in almost all our circuitry, even in
places where their use is not required. We have overbuilt the output stage and increased
the heat dissipating capabilities of the amplifiers by as much as 50% over our previous
designs. The changes encompass almost every part of the design, down to the choice of
thickness of the chassis sheet metal. The monolithic front end brought major advantages
to the amplifier design with improved temperature stability, low offset, and a substantial
reduction of all types of distortion across the full frequency spectrum.
Cary Audio Design has been known for over two decades as a producer of some of the
finest and most musical tube amplifiers in the world. Based on this heritage we have paid
special attention to the sonic qualities of these new solid-state amplifiers, voicing them to
have the proven attributes of the “Cary Sound” and testing them hundreds of hours with
many different speakers. In our quest to dramatically improve them over our previous
efforts we compared them to some of the best of the competition, often at much higher
price points. This took months of research and development time but we would not rest
until we were satisfied that we had surpassed our previous models by a wide margin. The
improvements in the power supply have brought gains in bass performance, which is now
much more visceral and controlled even into difficult loads. Reducing the noise floor,
increasing the isolation between the channels, and especially redesigning the sensitive
front end of the amplifier has improved imaging, sound staging and depth retrieval. The
midrange is now more lifelike and palpable. One area of which we are particularly proud
is what we have achieved in transparency, and the way images now hang in three
dimensional space. The amplifiers were designed to be equally at home in a high-
performance music system or a home cinema setting.