Bob Carver LLC Black Beauty Review

Zenkail, Bob Carver once told me his favorite preamp of all time is the Citation designed by Stu Hegeman. Once you get your tube equipment optimized, no SS can get that "addictive" sound you're referring to. :-)

wondering if anyone is still enjoying their BB 305's or the Cherry 180's? I got a set of the Black Beauty 305's several days ago and I have to say that I am pretty impressed so far; they drive my big Magnepan 20.7's without breaking a sweat! Very dynamic, very 3d, lots of beautiful harmonics, with good extension on the top and solid bass. Even on large complex works they seem to play very loud with no compression, no clipping, and no congestion. Amazing!

I'm using Cherry 180 with Tungsol KT120s to drive my behemoth Usher BE20 no sweat. I did quite a few upgrades to my VTA180 like volume pot, Duelund cap coupling, signal path resistors, etc
Worth noting that I try using Psvane KT120s. Sound superior to Tungsol but reliability is suck! Several tube failure during break in, each time would cost me to send bad tube back to Canada for replacement. Finally, dealer offer me to return Psvane of another set of Tungsol. So don't use Psvane KT120s, you will be sorry. Lot of headaches and maybe heart attack because when a tube goes south, big kaboom from your speaker
Best

I love my cherries! I sent mine to bob so he can modify them to work with the kt-150 tubes. He has had them for almost two months, I'm have withdrawal......

Milsap, what has Bob told you will improve with the KT-150's? More power? I am using the Black Beauty 305's (KT-120's) to drive my Magnepan 20.7's with good results, but I do wonder if a power boost with the KT-150's would be benefical.

With your 305's the power increase would not be that much, maybe only 10 to 20 watts at the 8 taps. In my case I'm going from 180 watts to 315 or so watts which will make a much more significant sound improvement not only from the new tubes but also giving me a whole lot more headroom. Bob claims the new 150 tubes give you the best of all tubes from top to bottom and since I only have had kt88's and have never heard the kt120's I'm not sure what you will gain. The few reviews out there on these new tubes are really positive. The 305 do not need any mods to run the 150's.

Milsap, how much is he charging you for the mods?

200 for the internals and 600 for the kt-150's. Think he gave me a good price due to it cost me almost 300 to send them to Washington and back. Just got an email and they should be done in the next month.

["200 for the internals and 600 for the kt-150's"]

[[[["Question: "I have read on the web that it may be possible for you to upgrade my 180's to 350's. Any information you could forward to me on cost, turnaround time, and if this upgrade is, in fact, something you offer, it would be greatly appreciated."

Upgrading your 180 to a 350 is too much of a stretch and is not practical. The extra cost is such that it would be cheaper to purchase a brand new 350. However, taking a 180 to a 305 is eminently practical, and I would be happy to do it. The price is $1,849, and its performance will be very close, on speech and music, to a 350, but on continuous sine waves it will be a 305. Low and medium level signal handling (up to 305 watts) will include my latest thinking, as implemented in the Raven/Crimson 350."]]]]

$800 vs $1800 plus shipping? Hmm.

Have you tried the KT-150's in a Black Beauty 305? Is the change worth investing in a set of KT 150's?

For those that think Bob Carver is merely a "marketer".

https://www.stereophile.com/content/carver-challenge