Peeking inside a Carver Crimson 275 Tube Amplifier

Hello everyone,

In our three labs, we all get around 75 watts @ 1% or less, 90 @ 2%, etc. 

From Jordon Gerber, ex-partner, degreed physicist and co-founder: The units are about 75 to 90 watts depending on the measurement technique. . I kept a record of every unit. The power drops at low frequencies but given the way they slam with Kef Blade IIs, the innovative towers from SpeakerLab, and Wilsons is impressive.

 From Edward Suver (our WA tech support, QC and manufacturing supervisor (we have production and QC supervisors in CA as well): That's a crazy review.  The amps actually put out 90w or so at 1k into 8ohms, one channel, with .6% distortion. Every one if them made on my watch was tested and confirmed to work. Maybe 2 or 3 in 100 put out maybe 80 to 85w at that distortion, don't know why though. They put out clean 90W down to 80Hz, and distort more as it goes down, due to the lack of steel in the output transformers. When Bob initially tested it, the crazy thing is that nobody minded it. Reviews confirm that. The frequency response is flat, it just gets distorted at lower frequencies, probably leading to "punchy" bass. And Bob argues that most have subwoofers and won't be using them below 80. For the output impedance, Bob wanted 1.7 ohm, and they usually measured 1.5 to 1.6. Never 2.5 or some BS.

From Speakerlab owner: "We've solidified our booth plan and will be premiering our Super SevenT-c's (the symmetrical tower version of our Super Sevens) powered by Bob Carver Crimson 350 monoblocks, and our Point2's powered by the new Bob Carver 275 Stereo amp. Source will be a Wolf Audio server run through a Mytek Brooklyn DAC, all wired with Kimber Kable Ascent and Base cables. Come see us next week at RMAF, room 2018!"

From Joe Parvey, owner, Wolf Audio Systems: "We almost always partner with Frank at shows. Their 350s and 275s outperform anything close in price. We sell them at our retail location.".

From Ken Kessler (the dean of British reviewers): "Wonderful; bought one for myself and I'm not selling it."

From Geoff Poor of Glenn Poor's AV--the largest BAT dealer in the world and the largest Wilson dealer in the Midwest. Geoff has consulted and worked with some of the most respected names in audio - Niro Nakamichi, Yamaha, MRC, Sony, & more - and in 1992, he was one of the founders of Dunlavy Audio Labs. In the spring of 1995, he left Dunlavy to become a partner at Balanced Audio Technology - a company he helped launch at the 1995 CES.: "

"Since we began showing his ALS (Amazing Line Source) loudspeaker system and his incredible 350 watt all-tube Raven mono-block amplifiers, the interest in Bob and his products has exploded. Both the ALS system ($18,500 with powered subwoofer) and the Raven mono-blocks ($9500/pair) represent incredible values - especially since they're built here in the United States. Another factor in their great value is the fact they are virtually bullet proof! It's so cool to be able to sell a high power, all tube system that is totally reliable.  To this date, we have experienced 100% reliability, and, based on Bob's design, the tube life expectancy is so long that the tubes and the mono-blocks are actually warrantied for 15 years!    

What if Bob could make a less powerful, and even more affordable, stereo version of the mono's?  Well, guess what?  He has, and we now have his new Crimson 275 playing in the same room as the Raven mono-blocks.  

The Crimson 275 is beautiful - looking and sounding - and is selling for only $2,750!  Using the same Tung-Sol KT-120 power tubes as the Raven mono's,  the same tube-saving "DC Restorer" circuit (that prolongs tube life by decades), the 75 watt/channel Crimson 275 is a genuine breath of fresh air in a world where most American-made electronics are simply too expensive for most of us.  The new stereo Crimson 275 is warrantied (tubes and all) for 5 years! It seems too good to be true, but it's not.  The Bob Carver Crimson 275 is a great amp!  And that's the truth!"

I'm hoping Bob will reply but he's pretty disappointed that no one from the blog called to discuss this. First time I've seen him angry. They seem to be $600 carver 37-watt Carverfest kits made by Jordon. He made 65 kits but we never manufactured them for sale to the public.

Remember we guarantee it will sound better than what you have or you get a full refund (subject to dealer policies on time frame, etc) and we've never had one returned. We've also never been able to keep up with demand. We may need a second warehouse! I'm meeting with Bob to discuss this on Thursday (two days from now).

Frank Malitz VP/Co-Founder

The Bob Carver Co.

847-668-4519

 

 

I am Frank Malitz, owner of the Bob Carver Company. I should be addressing capacitor and resistor questions. But, I would like to respond to phantom. here’s what he said about my company:
"I used to own the Black Beauty, It ran very difficult speakers and can handle difficult loads, Unfortunately Bob carver setup Distributors globally and got everyone to buy and market the amps for some time and then dropped all the distributors within an instant. Nice Amps but the people running the company have no idea."
1) the Black beauty was made many years ago and has nothing whatsoever to do with Glass Audio Inc. doing business as the Bob Carver Company.
2) Bob and I started the Bob Carver Company on January 1, 2016. I took over ownership January 1, 2020. Bob remains as my chief designer and certainly one of my best friends; we speak weekly. EJ is my only partner and builds it all by hand in CA.
3) I have only expanded into Thailand, New Zealand and Australia. I have not set up distributors globally because we have never been able to meet the demand and still cannot to this day. All purchasers of my product will be forced to wait between two weeks and six weeks depending on the model although two of our three approved Internet resellers stock large quantities which makes it easier on us all. Phantom, I have never dumped a distributor. Let me explain what a distributor is: we have no distributors in the United States. We only sell through retailers. We do not sell directly to the public. In the world of audio, a distributor will stock inventory in a warehouse in larger quantities than a retailer. That distributor would sell to the local retailers in his country who are too small to buy directly from the manufacturer--a common scenario.
4) the only time that Bob set up distributors globally was for the Carver brand and they fired him 35 years ago so phantom is a little bit behind the times. Even Sunfire, which Bob opened after being fired by the Carver Company, did not have global distribution.
5) Bob is still honoring the warranty on in-warranty tube units that he sold before January 2016. When he bought the Carver name back, he covered all the warranties out of his pocket. It is not legally our responsibility to back up those units but we always help anyone with a problem as best we can. This is easy because there are no failures. We have no service department. I can remember one 350 failure and about four 275s with buzzing transformers due to a mistake made by our supplier in not following Bob’s design. This is over a 15 year period representing hundreds of units sold. Our warranty is 40 times longer on the tubes than McIntosh or Audio Research, on our point to point units and 20 times longer on our PCB models and ten times longer that Prima Luna who are smart people! We’ve sent out eight tubes in ten years. In my 55 years in the industry, I have never handled any product with this low a failure rate (In all honesty, I don’t recall a defective Bel Canto).
6) I do not think it’s appropriate for phantom to claim that I have no idea what I’m doing. Most people would be offended. If this response is too wordy and defensive, I hope you can understand. I spent my life in this industry trying to bring good sound to everybody at every price level, hosting trainings at 8:00pm in the middle of nowhere. Yet, according to phantom I have failed.

Here’s a list of companies I’ve established, designed for or represented: (from my profile):

Onkyo USA

Integra (part of Onkyo USA)

Yamaha (twice)

SME

Grace

Supex

Denon

DCM

a/d/s/

Meitner

Museatex

VPI

Thorens

Trinnov

Pro-ject

REL

Counterpoint

Vector Research

Kenwood

Audio Alchemy (twice)

Acoustic Research (second launch)

Dahlquist (second launch)

Apogee (second launch)

Sonus Faber

Totem Acoustic (three times)

Triad Loudspeakers (three times)

Golden Tube

Tandberg (second launch)

Electrocompaniet

Cambridge Audio

Earthquake Sound

ADA

Artison

Harmon International (incl JBL, Infinity, etc)

ELAC

Sunfire

Carver

Sennheiser

Focal

Klipsch

M&K

AudioControl

Nordost

Monster Cable

Arcam

and at my age, I can guarantee I’ve left some out!

Consultation Experience:

Denon (tone arms and cartridges)

Stax (designed their first close back headphone)

Ortofon (phono cartridges)

BES (loudspeakers and marketing)

Thiel (product and marketing)

Acoustic Research (product and marketing)

Signet (electret headphones)

MXR (third octave equalization)

I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Coolest job in the world! Almost.

Sometimes, when I visit a forum, at the close of business, which is a rare occurrence because I own three companies and I’m 75 years old, I see a note like phantom’s and I wonder why I’m participating in this until the wee hours of the morning. But, the positive responses make it all worthwhile. I know some of you folks and you hopefully know I’m on the level. Come see me at the shows. I’m delighted to help anyone on any hifi topic and my phone number is published right on my website! I’m here for you seven days a week.