Welcome - Cary Audio Design SA-200.2 ES Owner's Manual

WELCOME

PRODUCT FEATURES
Congratulations!
Thank you for purchasing the SA-200.2 ES power amplifier.
The introduction of the SA-200.2 ES solid-state power amplifier represents the next generation
of the SA-200.2 design. It embodies a 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 the previous model
while still maintaining the highest levels of sonic quality.
The SA-200.2 ES is a 200 watt stereo amplifier into 8 ohms, (350 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-200.2 ES 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 amplifier by as much as 50% over 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 has been known for almost three 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.
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