the tfm 24 is the non metered version of the tfm 25, i owned it, i cant figure out why people reccomend theese amps as being a good buy, i hated mine , weak bass even with 104 db efficent speakers, the tfm 24 usually sells for around 200.00 on ebay in good shape.
unless i was getting it for free & knew it could be fixed for less than 100.00$ i would stay away from it alltogether.
I owned another tfm Carver amp and was quite surprised. It taught me how much different an amp can sound. It was awful. Fortunately I had only bought it to toy with. It sounded thin and had no soundstage. I'm a guy who doesn't believe that amps sound much different too. This one did. You can get an old Hafler or Adcom that works for less than you may have into the Carver and be much better off.
Sometimes with the vastly different responses I'm wondering if the year it was made didn't make a difference as I'd heard Carver was bought out in the early 90's maybe late 80's and didn't have he same quality control. I have an original Carver TFM-24 I bought over 20 years ago with the sonic C1 preamp used for $600 that was from the very early 80's. This is one of if not the best amps I've owned it still works today quite well I might add at over 40 years old. It's a bit warm sounding if I had to lean in one direction, but the power specs 225 a channel for the money are incredible. I've heard Adcoms and they're a bit too clinical for my taste. Also I ran somewhat bright speakers Monitor Audio Silver 6's a few years back with my analog Music Hall turntable and the mix was just awesome we're talking about a $5000 stereo that just ripped like you wouldn't believe Grado Sonata cartridge included. You do need some AC filtering cleanup I swear I even took a refrigerator out of my line and that made a huge difference a nice AC cord from your power conditioner helps too. The early Carvers as well as the Phase Linears powered the Grateful Dead wall of sound which was the best PA on the planet at the time and helped fry all those hippie brains in San Fran in the late 60's......see Owlsley who was their soundman it's an interesting story. Anyway Bob Carver is a genius he won that Stereophile shootout if you don't know about that Google it it's cool reading....
Oh BTW always use at least $200 interconnects between your amp and preamp that's a gimme.......it does make a difference folks I've studied sound since I was in high school and as a musician I have stupidly analytic hearing good god I wish I didn't but it's there....lol
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