Price Paid:  $2300.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
This is a truly superlative product and the best sounding pre/pro I have heard under $4800. Music is truly wonderful and absolutely as good as my two channel preamp and movies truly shine. This is one of the very few pre/pros that can do justice to having one system for movies and music.

Strengths:
Accuracy, soundstaging and musical "rightness"
A true do it all pre/pro

Weaknesses:
None

Price Paid:  $2200.00 from Local Dealer

Summary:
I have owned this preamp/processor for about 6 weeks now and I have to say that I am very pleased with it. It is a very musical processor, which was my primary concern. It's very hard to find a reasonable priced processor that has audiophile sound quality when listening to 2ch music. I upgraded from a Fosgate FAP-T1 (see my review), the fosgate seemed to be a little livelier when decoding movie soundtracks but I preffer the laid back sound of the Cary. The build quality of the Cary is first rate. It is very solid with a rich silver finish. I've also noticed that the cary doesn't have any vents, and it never gets hot, even after hours of loud music. I did read some reviews on the B&K Ref. 50 which was my second choice, I found the universal opinion to be that it lacked something on the 2ch stereo side, not saying that it was bad, but that it wasn't ideal for music. My cinema 6 is powered by a B&K Reference 2220, and a Adcom GFA-7400. These two amps sound great with this processor. The B&K handles by my 2ch needs and the Adcom powers my surround channels. As a CD player I am using the Pioneer elite DV-59AVI universal player, and for speakers I have a pair of the acclaimed Polk Audio LSI-15 combined with their RM7600 speaker package. These components communicate with eachother very well. The cinema 6 is very easy to use and very clean sounding, i'm sure my speakers play a great deal in that process but nevertheless the Cary adds no coloration to the sound. The Cary makes the midrange and tweeter come to life. For music I listen to alot of Pink Floyd, Jill Scott, & Prince (Don't Laugh), but for all of these different musical tastes the Cary handled itself like a musch more expensive unit. Another useful feature for those people people who have seperate SACD and DVD-Audio players, this unit has 2 multi-channel inputs which is somewhat hard to find on other pre/pro's. Now it's time to move on to the annoying features; First, you cannot choose default inputs (meaning if you have a dvd player using the toslink input the processor automatically selects the coaxial input first, the auto detect button can help with this), no phono stage, and no auxiliary inputs. The only inputs are TV,DVD,CD,TUNER & VCR. The remote control is not very friendly with other universal remotes, it's very hard to copy the codes from the cary unless you have a very good uni remote, otherwise you'll have to use Cary's remote. All in all it looks as if Cary skimmed on some features to provide a pre/pro with quality parts and audiophile sound quality at a reasonable price tag of $2500. The sound quality of this unit greatly outweighs any minor functionality preferences. If you are trying to combine high-end home theater and 2ch stereo it can be a long stressful journey, but the Cary can help ease your pain along the way without flatening your wallet.

Strengths:
Superb 2ch playback
2 Multi Channel inputs
Solid construction
Very easy to use
Supports latest decoding formats such as Prologic IIX

Weaknesses:
Only 5 analog inputs
No phono stage (some people still this)
No assigning default inputs

Similar Products Used:
Fosgate FAP-T1
Rotel RSP-1066

My System:

Cary Audio Cinema 6 pre/pro
B&K Reference 2220 two channel
Adcom GFA-7400 5 channel amp
Pioneer DV-59AVI Universal Player
Monster Cable HTS-3600
Polk Audio LSI-15
Polk Audio RM7600
Panasonic PT-50LC13
Monster cable reference interconnects