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Crimson 200's

I am really bad in this hobby as I am constantly changing my amps out. It is ridiculous.

I have gone from a Bryston 4BST to a First Watt J2 and to my most recent Pass 30.8 all with in 2 years. Now for some reason I have a bug to get some tube monoblocks and the Carver Crimson 200's are on my radar as I am curious.

I know nothing about tube amps other than when my dad had a Fischer that was built into this 8 foot long console, also with built in speakers, back in the 1970's. It was a huge piece of furniture and 90 percent of it was storage for the vinyl. The one thing that scares me is the tube maintenance but Carver's website claims these tubes can last 50 years.

Anyways, I love the look of the tube amps. So am I nuts for wanting to swap out the Pass for this pairing. Will I notice a big sound difference. Would you? I do not spend a lot of time researching things and just buy on a whim, tht is my style, not good but it is impossible to predict sound with so many variables so I just dive in. There is a cost associated with this behavior but hey...Thank you.
photonman
2 responses Add your response
lostbears's avatar
lostbears
538 posts
 

The Pass 30.8 is a very nice amp. I have not heard the Carver but I own a ARC Ref tube amp. I can tell you that Power tubes will not last 50 years. They will last 2000 to maybe 4000 hours, it depends on the tube. Signal or small tubes will last much longer. There is more up keep and maintenance for a tube amp. Is the amp auto bias or do you have to bias it?

I don't normally buy anything without hearing it in my system. A good system needs synergy. You can't just buy two well reviewed components and hope they will work well together. You need to hear how it sounds in your system.

What is the rest of your system? At the level of your amp it could be a sideways move. Different but not necessarily better. I doubt the amp is the weak link in your system. If you want some tube "magic" you might want to consider a tube preamp first.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"I am really bad in this hobby as I am constantly changing my amps out. It is ridiculous."

The first thing you need to do is stop spending.

"Anyways, I love the look of the tube amps. So am I nuts for wanting to swap out the Pass for this pairing. Will I notice a big sound difference. Would you?"

The only person that can answer that question is you.

" I do not spend a lot of time researching things and just buy on a whim, tht is my style, not good but it is impossible to predict sound with so many variables so I just dive in. There is a cost associated with this behavior but hey...Thank you."

There is, in deed, a cost to all this. If you don't stop buying new gear and don't figure out where you're going wrong, you're just getting started.

You can start out by listening to as much equipment as you can. The idea is to find out what types of things you do like in a system, and the things you don't. During this process, you'll notice that your likes and dislikes will come into focus. It makes it a lot easier to buy equipment.
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