Anyone here into old Carver stuff?

Rob Babcock

Rob Babcock

Active Member
I'm curious what you guys think of older SS Carver gear, be it amps or speakers. Does anyone has a soft spot for their stuff? Years ago I had a CM-1090 integrated amp. Although I have no use for one anymore, every time one shows up on Ebay in decent shape I consider nabbing it for my bedroom system...

I really liked the Carver Amazing Loudspeakers. Seems like they were had equal numbers of admirers and haters. The ALIII's really sounded nice with acoustic music, IMO.
 
I really like the old Carver stuff. I use to have a C1 pre, TX-11a tuner and m1.5t amp for my living room system. I sold it after getting my Martin Logan CLS speakers, as the amp couldn't handle the current draw of the electrostats without going into clipping at higher volumes.Also, I really like the C4000 pre and the M500 with the big VU meters combo. Now, I run a A760x and A500x in my home theater for the mains and subs. So, you could say I like Carver stuff. :yes:
 
The only piece of Carver gear i've owned was the Carver Receiver 900. I really enjoyed that amp and regret getting rid of it. I traded it for a Sansui AU-517 and while I like the Sansui, I miss the Carver. In all my time of thrifting and pawnshoping, it's still the only Carver gear i've seen in this part of the world.
 
I have a TFM-25 in my bedroom system (225wpc iirc). The bass isn't as tight as a Kenwood M-1a I used to have up there but it sounds nice with my Adcom GTP-400 and some nice efficient Jamo 14 bass reflex speakers from about '89.

The big beef I have with the amp is that the construction quality is shoddy. Its a Korean model and the lack of QC shows in the case and solder quality. This amp was a curbside rescue that was a victim of counterfeit transistors. Some knockoff outputs were installed and that took out a bunch of other components. IIRC even Carver got burned by the fake devices (2SC3281 and 2SA1302). They used three pairs of outputs on each channel.

Many former Carver amp owners ditched them due to issues when driving difficult loads. Some people swear they sound great while others run out of synonyms for crap when describing them. I take the middle ground. They can drive a stable 8 ohm speaker to the breaking point and sound great doing it but don't try any funky loads or it'll sound like mud.

It was for precisely the above reason that I now have a Kenwood 700m. That monster can make speakers you've written off snap to attention. The Carver just didn't have the oomph.
 
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I wonder if anybody here owns the fabled Carver "cube", can't remember the model number. This was Bob's first "Carver" brand product back in 1979. Incredibly small for the power output claimed.

There was also a "pyramid" shaped affair from Yamaha based on Carver's Magnetic Field technology, IIRC.
 
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The cube was the M-400t.

I never had a cube amp, but I have had M-500t, M1.0t, M1.5t, M4.0t, TFM-35 and TFM-42. I don't have the M1.0t or M1.5t anymore.

I've had C-1, C-2, C-11, and C-16 preamps. I don't have the C-1 or C-2 anymore.

I had a TL-3300 cd player, a Digital Time Lens, and a C-9 Hologram Generator, but I don't have those anymore.

I've had TX-11a and TX-10 tuners. I don't have the TX-10 anymore.

I also had a Carver "Receiver 150" but I don't have that anymore.

I bought the Amazing Platinum Mk.IV loudspeakers in 1991 and I still have those.

Most of the stuff I don't have anymore I gave to my brother-in-law.
 
The only Carver I still have is my A400X amp- I use it to drive my subs. Works very well for that. Not exactly "vintage," as it's THX cert'd and one of the last Carver products produced before they closed.
 
I own a Carver CT-6 preamp and just parted with a TFM-25 amplifier that was the amp in my main system for years. I like Carver stuff and also the first stuff that Bob came up with, Phase Linear. I plan on being a fan for a long time.

Adios,

Scott
 
I used to have a Lightstar Reference amp. There were only 72 built then Carver started to build the much inferiror Lightstar 2.0. The Reference is an amazing amp which can deliver 300W/channel to 8 ohms, 600W to 4ohms and 1200W to 2ohms. The problem is it takes almost an hour to warm up and is heavy like hell. I sold it because I feel bad for not being able to use it all the time ( I used Marantz/Pioneer/Sansui receivers for quick listening to music, that is where they belong) and I also have a tube system which requires a lot more attention for serious listening.
 
Carvers, ya either love 'em or hate 'em. I seldom see or hear any middle ground. My experience listening to store set ups was that Bob Carver was right up there with Amar Bose at hype marketing. They did not seem well made and perhaps the reason you see so few for sale is so many died and were never repaired.
 
Lookingglass100 said:
Carvers, ya either love 'em or hate 'em. I seldom see or hear any middle ground. My experience listening to store set ups was that Bob Carver was right up there with Amar Bose at hype marketing. They did not seem well made and perhaps the reason you see so few for sale is so many died and were never repaired.
Click to expand...

Whoa! Hey - lets settle down and take a breather. No need to resort to namecalling. That Bose remark was uncalled for and rude.

(No I'm not being serious. Just milking the Bose joke...)

Unlike Bose's hype machine which seems to consist of ressurecting some old speaker design and slapping some flashy ad copy on it, Carver does have some innovative products. The stuff he's done with amplifier design was his attempt to break all the rules. It may have been a flawed solution but you have to give him credit for thinking outside the box. Every field needs a few mavericks to shake things up. Sure some of the stuff he cranks out is half-baked but that's all in a day's work for any serious inventor. You just keep cranking away until you find something that catches fire. OK maybe I could have used a different metaphor but you get my point.

Seriously, his stuff occupies a strange niche in the marketplace. Too audiophile for the WorstBuy crowd and too gauche for the serious audiophiles. Not quite the same situation as Cerwin Vega but with the same dual marketplace (consumer/pro audio) penetration.

There was an interview with Bob Carver I posted a while back and it gives some insight as to his work. Do an AK search.
 
My A400x is damn ballsy running my subs. I originally used the 500 W amp made for them, but the Carver just has more slam. It does seem like they had build quality issues, but I can't complain about mine.
 
Sorry to chime in so late...

Let's see....

I have owned:

C-1, C-16 (TA now owns) preamps
m400x2 (I used them bridged to run my DQ-10's)
m1.5t, m0.5t, m200t, TFM-45, Silver 9t's
Carver Amazing Loudspeakers (originals)

My wife, the Lovely Wendi, has a Carver Receiver which she adores ALMOST as much as Toasted Almond (partially because he bestowed it upon her personally)

Yeah, fair to say that I like Carver's products.

You know, I hear people complain about the reliability of them but I really have to wonder. Of all the Carver products that I've owned, I've only had to have one piece repaired. There seems to be an awful lot of Carver gear in circulation, much of it more than 2 decades old....so, I really have to wonder how much water the claims of poor quality hold.

BDT
 
I've got a Carver Receiver 150. Works great! The Asymetrical Charge Coupled Detector FM circuitry works as advertised completely eliminating distortion and hiss on weak stations with no sigificant deterioration in the sound quality.
 
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