A Carver Receiver... that doesn't

OK, so the Big Boss at work, knowing of my hi-fi proclivities, offered me his Carver receiver (Mrs. Big Boss has requested that it depart the basement). He encouraged me to make sure Mrs. H wasn't aware of its source!

He thought there was something wrong with it, and by Jove he appears to be right about that! When plugged in and turned on, there's a pilot light on the main display which lights (sort of an edge lit effect), and the "infinity" (negative infinity) LED's on the signal level meters light, but none of the function switch LED's lights. If one presses an input selector (say, FM), the LED associated with it lights, dimly, while the switch is pressed, but goes out when one removes finger pressure from the switch. The tuner display doesn't. Needless to say, there's no output (not even hum or hiss)... I've only tried cheap headphones. I've not checked for DC on the outputs.

This is one of those nameless Carver receivers (I know, they're named "Carver Receiver"). It says "Magnetic Field Power Amplifier" on the front -- shades of the Carver "Cube" :-O

Can any of you Carver gurus ID this particular Carver Receiver?

I've never owned any Phase Linear, Carver (well, I do have a Carver CDP I found at the dump), or Sunfire equipment, so this would be interesting to hear and to play with. Is there any hope for this rascal? Any tips on where to start would be greatly appreciated and gratefully received!

Thanks for your attention!

Either 130 or 150 wpc. Also requires jumper bars across the labeled pre/main RCA jacks on the back to operate -- check that they aren't missing first.

Merrylander or Nakdoc are a couple of go-to guys on this model for fixing.

It's gots da jumpers.. good call, though! Thanks!

The real question is : is worth even considering fixing it!?

Looks like the precurser to the 6200 at 100 wpc.

Took a quick look inside. Noted two banks of power resistors -- R111-114 on one board, and R655-658 on the P/S board, that have heated and discolored the PCB beneath them (they're all mounted well clear of the PCB). Interestingly, there is a small (maybe 1/2 watt) resistor, R635, on the P/S board next to the big-butt power resistors which is visibly cracked. Wonder if this is indirect, due to heating, or a root cause of something.

BTW, with the receiver on and "working" as described above, nothing inside is getting terribly hot. After power down, the aforementioned power resistors were only a bit warm.

I am probably out of my depth with this one...

The cooking power resistors is a common issue with these units. There is an upgraded (larger) resistor that is installed to fix it. One of my Receivers has had this done by the factory -- it looked like someone took a torch to the PC board when they let go. My other one is stock.

Is it worth it to fix? One just sold for $225 on that auction site. Typically pull in around $150--$200, and can go higher. YMMV.

If you do a search on Carver on AK you might find a glowing and enthusiastic downloadable review on The Receiver someone posted. I thought I had it stored, but can't find it.

Time to PM NakDoc or Merrylander me thinks to get some aid.

Congrats! Great score!!!

There's a thread about this recently posted, with mention to the bad power resistors (a few of them, 2 to 4, If I correctly recall), that I know is floating around.

If you want to sit on it (as in hold on a bit, not as Fonzie requests one to do), I've got Birddog's cube on loan here. You're welcome to hear that before you decide if you want to fix it or not...

Some people really like the Carver gear, and some don't care at all for it. I've yet to play the cube, so I'm still out, jury-wise...

There are two groups of four resistors rated at 2 watts that should be replaced with 5 watt units. With the display out it could be the cracked one you noted or it could be the display itself. I have spare boards and even a spare display as long as the plastic in front is whole as your seems to be. The fact that those resistors in your unit only get warm might indicate lack of DC from the power supply.

Oh BTW that is the MXR130 or MXR150 (they jacked up the voltage on the 130 to push the output to 150WPC).

Rob