Anyone here into old Carver stuff?

I've a Carver HR-752 receiver and a 6250 receiver... The HR 752 has performed flawlessly since I bought it new in about 1991... Had the 6250 restored by the Carver service shop in Oregon, still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it... Seems like very nice equipment...
 
The new stuff ain't half bad either.. well the now old, new stuff.. Bob Caver LLC is gone (Im curious what the bust up was with Emotiva)

Bob Carver Corp is the newest incarnation of His company. He may be able to design and build an amp but he appears to be one of the worst businessmen in consumer electronics. dude can't hang on to a company or his own name for that matter.

Phase Linear
Carver
Sunfire
Carver - he bought the name back while still at Sunfire and did nothing with it from what I recall
Bob Carver LLC ( "the tube amplifier company" sold to Emotiva),

and now in 2014 it's
Bob Carver Corp.

am I missing any?

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Lets see, in 1991 I purchased: C-16, TD-1400, DPL-33, TFM-25, TX-12, MDV-500, and later added two TFM-15cb's, one bridged mono for the center channel and the other for the rear channels. Very nice sounding surround system, especially when I added the 1000watt beast below to drive the two passive subs I built. The amp was driven from the sub output on the DPL-33.

 
:banana:

Piling on....

My first system, 1985 while stationed in Japan was "The" Carver Receiver, "The" AR Turntable, a pair of JBL L112s and a Sony CDP501ES. I'm smiling like a loon thinking of the good times.

All gone now, getting another receiver for the garage system is on the radar if for nothing but the awesome aesthetics.
 
Great old thread! I always lusted over the Carver meters when I was in high school. I finally bought in 1992, an HR732 Receiver and SD/A 360 CD changer. (Boston Acoustic T930 Towers also!) They are all still in use today. The 732 gets used almost daily and has been repaired once in my 22 years with it. The CD Changer just started having issues, which I think is a belt. About 5 or 6 years ago, I found a decent deal on a refurbed M-500 (non-T), TFM-45 (true Magnetic Field amp), and a CT-6 pre-amp. Here is how it lays out:

The 732 is connected to a Pure-20 and I-pod touch, streaming Pandora to a pair of Paradigm Micro (V-3's) in my home gym.

The M-500 is connected to the CT-6 along with the SD/A 360 changer playing thru a pair of Paradigm Studio 20's (V3) in my office and sounds fantastic

The TFM-45 is connected to a Sunfire Tubed Pre, NAD CDP, Maverick DAC and a pair of Vandersteen 2C's. This is my main 2 channel system.
 
Redundant to my sig but:

Original Amazings
AL-III
Silver 9ts
TFM-55x
TFM-35
Sunfire TGP 5

Everything works perfectly and sounds incredible. Amazings are.

Terry
 
Might as well bring this thread back yet again, as it has several times before already... :)

My oldest brother when based over in Germany, purchased a Carver stack, the C-1, M-400t, TX-11 and DTL-100. He powered a pair of JBL L112's with that little cube amp with ease. He later purchased another M-400t and ran them bridged to a pair of Maggie MGLR-1's that I traded to him. Some time after that, he bought a TFM-35x. Around the same time, he upgraded to a C-4000 and SDA-450 as the transport in the DTL-100 had died after being sent off twice to be fixed.

I'm on my second piece of Carver gear myself. First was a Carver Pro PM700 that I used for years to power several different DIY subs. And my most recent, as within the last couple of weeks, is a totally mint TX-11a. I have it mated to a new Magnum Dynalab ST-2 antenna, and they play very well together.

I'm now pondering the idea of getting an M-500t and getting it overhauled to MkII status (if anyone still does that work). I wonder if it would be a sound quality upgrade from my current Wyred 4 Sound ST-250. It certainly wouldn't be as efficient, but it would have those nice big meters.

p2180441633-5.jpg
 
Carver was first high power amps I lusted after as well. Remember when his amps could be found in Crutchfield magazine? The monster watt per channel ratings on his amps contrasted so much with the rest of the catalog, but his cool amps with the round meters was what I wanted and got, and I then understand the value of headroom in trying to realistically recreate a musical performance.
 
Not anymore after my cube amp went up in smoke and my C-9 unit died

I wouldn't mind finding a C-9 at a decent price just to play with. It's been a long time since I heard it on my brother's C-1 and C-4000 many moons ago. Plus the fact my system is set up a lot more optimally than his was (small bedroom). There's a couple on "that" site for 90 bucks. I'm not too sure they're actually worth that much these days, especially if it's just to play around with. Unless of course it ends up sounding really good to the point of it actually enhancing the sound.



No more carver gear here either since my tfm 45 got replaced by a Mac mc2500.

A long time ago, I used my brother's TFM-35x on my pair of Maggie MGLR-1's and a pair of Infinity Kappa 6 speakers that I should have never sold. I then compared them to a McIntosh MC7200. The Carver smoked it in every way. Width, depth, clarity, tightness, detail, warmth, sheer power and the fact that it never clipped once. With the MC7200, the sound stage was congested, bass was mushy, mids were decent, treble was a bit brittle, and with the Maggies, the "Power Guard" LED's were constantly flickering, even at fairly low levels. It even did it on the Kappa's at moderately high-ish levels.

I know the Carver was more powerful, but only by 50 watts, but man, I wasn't expecting the McIntosh to be so ball-less. Of course, it was also just a regular SS amp too, not a traditional Mac with the output autoformers. Those autoformers really make a McIntosh, like the old MC250 I used to have.
 
That's a very interesting comparison, cube. I can't remember how my TFM-35x sounded really - too long ago. I used it with Paradigm Reference Eclipse Bipolars. My system was very bright sounding but I don't think it was the amp; I think it was that CT-23 Carver preamp that I had.
 
Carver! Did somebody say Carver!
Carver C-1 Sonic Holography Pre Amplifier

Carver TFM 25 Magnetic Field Power Amplifier

Carver TD-1770 3 Head Cassette Deck

Carver TX-11 Asymmetrical charge Coupled FM Detector
Carver TS-441S Satellite Surround

Sunfire SDS-10 Dynamic Series Subwoofer

See my post for pics!
 
Didn't dig through all 8 pages of the thread so far, but there is an entire site dedicated to carver gear you may want to check out. google carver audio forum and go exploring, plenty of good info there. I only have one piece of gear, a carver C-1 that I use as the pre in my main system. I don't have a ton of experience with different gear, but I do know that after performing the Bill-D mods the sound quality improved drastically from stock, and it sounds pretty darn good.
 
Didn't dig through all 8 pages of the thread so far, but there is an entire site dedicated to carver gear you may want to check out. google carver audio forum and go exploring, plenty of good info there. I only have one piece of gear, a carver C-1 that I use as the pre in my main system. I don't have a ton of experience with different gear, but I do know that after performing the Bill-D mods the sound quality improved drastically from stock, and it sounds pretty darn good.

I know what you mean about sound quality be drastically improved. Although, I've never touched or heard an M-500t until yesterday, everyone says that the MkII upgrades that are performed on these amps are a worthy investment. As a kid, I always wanted the M-500(t) amp only because of its looks with those nice big meters. Now I actually have one, updated and upgraded, and it's everything I thought it would be.

And even though the C-9 is in perfect shape inside and out, it's still 30 years old, so I'm going to be inquiring about sending it off to get updated and modded. It too is said to be a drastic improvement... And it already sounds great as is!

This is a pic under the cover of my M-500t. It's a list of everything done to it. Obviously, those blue LED's were changed out for white which is fine by me. Much like the "Carver Site" member that sent me this amp, I too am tired of all of this equipment these days with blue LED's everywhere.

p2195417002-5.jpg



And of course, the topside of the amp cover... Just the icing on the cake!
p2195417000-5.jpg
 
I just brought a "given to me" C-9 back from the dead. So I'm glad I finally found one to play with that's not locked into a preamp. It's an interesting effect that can, on certain recordings, do some fascinating things. You can increase those effects if you cascade it to surround processing, but it's not to my ears a "turn it on and leave it on" type device. Nice to have at the price I got it for. But I've been a long time Carver enthusiast since about 1986, so I treat my Carver gear with respect. I owned a cube amp for twenty years and it never gave ONE MINUTE'S trouble the entire time I had it. And it sounded terrific. The more evolved the Carver Corporation's amps became, the less ankle biting price snob critics had to kvetch about, which probably is my FAVORITE thing about his designs. Like everybody else's pretensions towards greatness, they were always a work in progress and not simply an invitation to get (and stay) on the (now, especially) hyper-inflationary audio gerbil wheel...
 
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