David, I've heard the Cary with some Tannoys , I forget which ones, and they sounded very pleasant. That amp switches between 80w Class a/b and 40 watts Class A. I preferred the sound of the Class A mode but that was at moderate volumes. Its a nice sounding amp no doubt about it.
The only Manleys I've heard are the Manley NeoClassic 250 monoblocs which are much more expensive and that much more capable than the Cary SLI-80. They were driving a pair of Sonus Fabers which aren't my favourite speaker either but still made them sound very nice with all types of music. A problem with good tube amps is the price sky rockets much more than SS, the more powerful the amp.
