2. amps-preamps
  3. 150405-94875

Carver, THE standard of excellence IMO

I have read many discussions on these forums and others about many people having difficulty getting hold of or information from the manufacturers or dealers about problems with their gear.  Some wait weeks,months or forever for a response.Yesterday (Sunday) I thought I was having a small problem with my Carver Crimson 350 amps and I did some tests described in the manual to check the KT120 tubes.  I was getting some strange meter readings and couldn't understand why.  So I went to the Carver site and wrote a detailed email at that site, expecting to hear back sometime this week.  At the time I did not know it went straight to the president and co-owner Frank Malilz, but it does. Frank marked it "very important" and forwarded to Bob Carver who at 9:15 pm (my time) sent me a detailed answer that solved my problems.  Are you kidding me!!!! straight to the pres and then to the designer (we all know who is a legend) and back to me within 6 hrs ON A SUNDAY!  To paraphrase a truck commercial....Carver doesn't raise the bar, it sets it.

I know not everyone can afford a set of $9500 monos but I am sure the service would be the same on Carver's new 275s at less than $2800.  I have heard the 275s at Axpona and they are voiced extremely close to the 350s just not as much power.  For most set ups they would be magnificent.  Who else gives the amp AND tubes a TRANSFERABLE 5 yr warranty?  Both the 350 and 275 play for hrs and never get hot.  Handmade in the USA and signed by the legend himself.  If you are looking for a tube amp in this category that plays far far above it's price you owe it to yourself to check out the 275 (or the 350s if you can go that way financially, 10 yr warranty on everything, if you talk to Bob he would probably give you a 50 yr warranty on amp AND tubes, I am not kidding in the least.)  I have no interest in any way with Bob Carver Corp other than a love of it's products and service.  I've posted some here before so you know I'm not a shill. I just wanted to educate some on this forum about my experience, about a great product and outstanding service from the people who make that product.  I believe they really care about audio and their customers.
DrMark  (Doc from MI on some Carver sites)
drkingfish

Showing 2 responses by almarg

almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
@Jetter, one reason may be that putting the switch in the back results in the amp's noisy internal AC wiring being as short as possible, and being kept away from the small signal tubes and related circuitry that is near the front. Thus minimizing the likelihood of noise coupling into that circuitry.

Obviously many successful amplifier designs have the switch in the front, but putting it in the back means one less potential sonic issue and one less potential compromise for the designer to have to address.

And as a BTW, the same thing is done in the highly respected tube-based Herron phono stage I use. Even though in many setups gaining access to the rear panel of a phono stage may be more problematical than gaining access to the rear panel of a power amp.

Best regards,
-- Al

almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
FWIW, during the early to mid-1980s I purchased several Carver Corporation products, namely the C4000, TX11, C79, M400a, and M400t. All of them were 100% reliable during the years I owned them, and in fact the M400t is still going strong in the home of a relative, after about 35 years! The others I sold after several years, as I moved on to more expensive products.

My sonic favorite among those products, btw, was the M400t, which was the version of the cube-shaped amplifier that was designed to emulate the sonics of the legendary Mark Levinson ML-2. From a sonic standpoint I found it to be a considerable improvement on its predecessor model, the M400a. Despite their diminutive size both models seemed every bit as powerful as their 201 wpc rating would suggest, and although I found the dimensionality of the image the M400t projected to seem slightly constricted it was an excellent sonic performer in pretty much all other respects, at least with the easy to drive speakers I was using at the time. And it was certainly an outstanding value, given its price and its power capability.

To the OP, thanks for recounting your great experience with Bob & Frank.

Regards,
-- Al

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