jazzmans
Super Member
I scroed from an inmate here a pair of absolutely pristine Carver AL III
I and when I say Pristine, I mean they were literally showroom quality still, excepting one tiny scratch on one side of one ribbon panel. I Couldn't believe the great condition they were in. For various reasons, the seller couldn't keep them, and so knowing how much I love ribbons, he offered them to me for an amazing price.
Of course, I bit, ran to the bank, and straight to his place to pick them up. They were exactly as he described, and I took them home, wrapped securely in blankets.
I hooked them up to one of my Carver amps, and they sounded mighty fine. So fine that I decided to take my precious Magnepan 2.5R out of the main room, and install the Carvers in their place.
While listening I started to notice some 'distortion' in female vocals, making it difficult for me to make out what she was saying (if it matters, I was watching a Dr Who episode and listening to Billy speak) so dug deeper, put on one of my reference piano recordings, and oh yeah, it buzzes. So then I ran a frequency sweep, discovered the dreaded buzz in only one speaker, starting at 325 hz, and continuing in various ways up to 2k. I changed amplifiers, switched channels, and the buzz followed the speaker no matter what was powering it or where it was. AAAAG! The buzz usually means the ribbons are 'wearing out' and are due to fail. Now I want to be clear here, the buzz was faint with musical sources, not really discernable except as a bit of distortion in female vocals (mostly) So, I pulled them out of the main room, and drag them into my spare room to await whatever I decide to do with them...
Queue two hours of searching with google Carver AL 3 buzzing repair, and a ton of links......
Finally, buried deep in one link, which happened to be an Ebay auction from the (in)famous Dr Marksy, within the Q/A section of the auction, was a reply by the famed dr.
He said, usually, the buzzing is simply fixed by tightening the tension screws that flank the tweeter slot. So, I go look at mine, and see an array of phillips #1 screws that flank both sides of the ribbon on the rear. I've made the mistake of overtorquing things in the past, so I settled on tightening all the screws in order just 1/8th of a turn.
Did it, then ran the same frequency sweep that originally let me hear clearly that there was a buzz... and
It's gone. No buzz! (Again, it was faint, and I expect no-one but a tweaky bastard like me with 'golden ears' would have even noticed the buzz) So, I ran the sweep again, ensured that the buzz was gone, then decided to move the speakers back into my main room, for further listening to verify I really wanted to replace my much loved Maggie 2.5r speakers.
With my arm injury, I can't lift these heavy and ackward speakers by myself, so began moving them by using the 'sled' method. (take towel, leverage speakers onto said towel, leaving 2/3's of the towel to act as the lever, by which I slowly pull them into the front room) When I did this to put them into storage, I had the speakers 'facing' me while I pulled the towel slowly down the hall.
Que ominous music here:
This time, without any reason, I put the speakers on the towel with the speakers facing away from me. Didn't figure it would matter, I was pulling gently and slow, etc etc...
Yeah. Bad Idea. I got halfway down the hall, and all of a sudden I see the speaker start to fall face down, which is AWAY from me. I was too far away from the speaker to do anything but barely touch the bass bin and then the unthinkable happened.
The speaker slammed down face first on the uncovered concrete of my hall!
F*************************************************k!
I broke it. the once pristine, (and I do mean pristine, those ribbons were perfect looking) ribbon is bent, warped, slightly torn, and fubar.
literally tears are streaming down my face. I can't believe this.
FML, and sorry for the cursing above. This is without a doubt, the single worst thing I've ever done to a piece of equipment, and I did it to a pair of Carver Amazing Loudspeakers!
:cry :cry :cry :cry.
I and when I say Pristine, I mean they were literally showroom quality still, excepting one tiny scratch on one side of one ribbon panel. I Couldn't believe the great condition they were in. For various reasons, the seller couldn't keep them, and so knowing how much I love ribbons, he offered them to me for an amazing price.
Of course, I bit, ran to the bank, and straight to his place to pick them up. They were exactly as he described, and I took them home, wrapped securely in blankets.
I hooked them up to one of my Carver amps, and they sounded mighty fine. So fine that I decided to take my precious Magnepan 2.5R out of the main room, and install the Carvers in their place.
While listening I started to notice some 'distortion' in female vocals, making it difficult for me to make out what she was saying (if it matters, I was watching a Dr Who episode and listening to Billy speak) so dug deeper, put on one of my reference piano recordings, and oh yeah, it buzzes. So then I ran a frequency sweep, discovered the dreaded buzz in only one speaker, starting at 325 hz, and continuing in various ways up to 2k. I changed amplifiers, switched channels, and the buzz followed the speaker no matter what was powering it or where it was. AAAAG! The buzz usually means the ribbons are 'wearing out' and are due to fail. Now I want to be clear here, the buzz was faint with musical sources, not really discernable except as a bit of distortion in female vocals (mostly) So, I pulled them out of the main room, and drag them into my spare room to await whatever I decide to do with them...
Queue two hours of searching with google Carver AL 3 buzzing repair, and a ton of links......
Finally, buried deep in one link, which happened to be an Ebay auction from the (in)famous Dr Marksy, within the Q/A section of the auction, was a reply by the famed dr.
He said, usually, the buzzing is simply fixed by tightening the tension screws that flank the tweeter slot. So, I go look at mine, and see an array of phillips #1 screws that flank both sides of the ribbon on the rear. I've made the mistake of overtorquing things in the past, so I settled on tightening all the screws in order just 1/8th of a turn.
Did it, then ran the same frequency sweep that originally let me hear clearly that there was a buzz... and
It's gone. No buzz! (Again, it was faint, and I expect no-one but a tweaky bastard like me with 'golden ears' would have even noticed the buzz) So, I ran the sweep again, ensured that the buzz was gone, then decided to move the speakers back into my main room, for further listening to verify I really wanted to replace my much loved Maggie 2.5r speakers.
With my arm injury, I can't lift these heavy and ackward speakers by myself, so began moving them by using the 'sled' method. (take towel, leverage speakers onto said towel, leaving 2/3's of the towel to act as the lever, by which I slowly pull them into the front room) When I did this to put them into storage, I had the speakers 'facing' me while I pulled the towel slowly down the hall.
Que ominous music here:
This time, without any reason, I put the speakers on the towel with the speakers facing away from me. Didn't figure it would matter, I was pulling gently and slow, etc etc...
Yeah. Bad Idea. I got halfway down the hall, and all of a sudden I see the speaker start to fall face down, which is AWAY from me. I was too far away from the speaker to do anything but barely touch the bass bin and then the unthinkable happened.
The speaker slammed down face first on the uncovered concrete of my hall!
F*************************************************k!
I broke it. the once pristine, (and I do mean pristine, those ribbons were perfect looking) ribbon is bent, warped, slightly torn, and fubar.
literally tears are streaming down my face. I can't believe this.
FML, and sorry for the cursing above. This is without a doubt, the single worst thing I've ever done to a piece of equipment, and I did it to a pair of Carver Amazing Loudspeakers!
:cry :cry :cry :cry.