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.