Sean.
I thought your description of Carver products was very accurate. Bob Carver was a genius and did things in a very creative way that most manufacturers did not do. I purchased a C-4000 around 1985 for $ 800.00 and I thought it sounded awesome with Pink Floyd the wall. The Sonic Holography blew me away. But after listening for a while I found it fatiguing and did not sound right (it did not reproduce instruments to my ears in a pleasing way). I also purchased one of those Rubicks Cube amps used and was amazed at the power. I blew it up in a short amount of time and traded it off for an Audio Research SP 9 and Bryston 4B. I never really noticed much of a difference with the Peak Unlimiter and Auto Correlator on the preamp. However I will never forget that wide unbelievably large sound stage of the Carver Preamp but it only sounded good with a few records that I owned.
I thought your description of Carver products was very accurate. Bob Carver was a genius and did things in a very creative way that most manufacturers did not do. I purchased a C-4000 around 1985 for $ 800.00 and I thought it sounded awesome with Pink Floyd the wall. The Sonic Holography blew me away. But after listening for a while I found it fatiguing and did not sound right (it did not reproduce instruments to my ears in a pleasing way). I also purchased one of those Rubicks Cube amps used and was amazed at the power. I blew it up in a short amount of time and traded it off for an Audio Research SP 9 and Bryston 4B. I never really noticed much of a difference with the Peak Unlimiter and Auto Correlator on the preamp. However I will never forget that wide unbelievably large sound stage of the Carver Preamp but it only sounded good with a few records that I owned.