Reporting from Munich High End 2025, Stereophile’s Ken Micallef wrote a few kind words, which we saw published online at Stereophile.com. Here’s what he has to say about our exhibit, new products and listening experience:
Cary Audio’s Billy Wright, with his characteristic Southern charm, introduced a pair of new offerings at High End Munich: the Cary Audio SLP-300 preamplifier and the Cary Audio DMS-300A streaming integrated. Prices are yet to be announced.
The SLP-300 is a fully balanced tube preamplifier with an onboard phono stage and headphone amp. It runs in class-A via four 12AX7 tubes, and includes two RCA single-ended inputs, two XLR balanced inputs, one XLR balanced output per channel, two RCA single-ended outputs per channel, a stepped volume control, and a remote and trigger control.
The DMS-300A pushes 75 solid state Watts per channel, class-AB. Features include streaming and digital processing via an AKM 768kHz DAC chipset, sampling rates of 44.1kHz to 768kHz, DSD64 to DSD512, a 32-bit 8x-oversampling filter, and a Bluetooth Qualcomm aptX decoder and transmitter. Analog processing is performed via a third-order Bessel analog filter. The amp includes RCA analog sub outputs. The DMS-300A offers Spotify Connect and TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, Roon Ready, DLNA, and AirPlay.
Wright’s Munich system also included Cary Audio CAD 211FE monoblocks ($29,500/pair) and Fyne Audio Vintage Twelve Loudspeakers ($30,500/pair). Chord [Company] supplied the cabling.
This surprising system reproduced Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” Lady Gaga’s “Always Remember Us This Way,” and Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark” with astonishing clarity. A massive soundstage with lots of detailed upper air revealed previously unheard nuances. “Beautiful center fill, deeply, liquidly layered, weighty, details laid bare,” said my notes.
