Bob Carver 180 Mono-blocks perform superbly

I have owned Parasound JC-1 mono-blocks and still own the Ayon Triton and the Bob Carver 180s in "my system" perform way better than the other gear I have owned. The 180's retail for $7400. They provide a large open, clear and dynamic sound-stage, yet the mids are smooth and liquidity. I'm hearing more detail in familiar recordings with no harshness or grain. You can make out the layers of music in recordings. My friends are blown away by the improvement. The 180's have a circuit that extends the life of the power tubes and the power tubes have a one year warranty. The amps themselves have a seven year warranty and are built like tanks. You can listen in a classic mode or a more contemporary mode by flicking a switch. The new LLC has been set up in Lexington Kentucky and I'm in Louisville so it makes it convenient if repairs were ever needed. All in all I believe Bob has really designed an incredible set of mono-blocks. I love tubes and the 180's are for sure sweet. They normally come in a cherry color but I had mine made in gloss black to match my other components.

12-30-11: Hifihvn
One odd thing, Bob Carver always made it quite clear he is not a tube amp person. Who would have guessed.

Really? Here's an excerpt from a 1990 Stereophile interview:

Atkinson: One of them, of course, was the C19 tube preamp. That's the second tube product we've seen from you, the first being the Silver Seven power amplifier. Does this represent a new-found passion, or have you always been interested in tubes?

Carver: I started designing amplifiers when I was in the 7th grade. Transistors hadn't arrived on the scene, so all my early work was designing vacuum-tube amplifiers. My first passion is vacuum-tube amplifiers, I grew up with vacuum-tube amplifiers. I love vacuum-tube amplifiers, I love them to pieces. I had a fantasy amplifier that I carried around in my mind all of these years; I dreamed about it, on and off, through my military career, through my children being born, through being married. I even purchased some Acrosound A-450 output transformers in the early '60s; I've carried those transformers with me all through my life, waiting some day for the moment to arrive to put them to use. The Silver Seven is that Fantasy Island amplifier, but I never really had the time to do it until now. The basic topology of the circuitry, however, was really hatched years ago.

A secondary reason for the development of the Silver Seven was that I really did want to endow an amplifier with everything that I could possibly think of, or anybody else could possibly think of, that would make it a wonderful, wonderful amplifier. And that included the silver wire and the Wondersolder, the gold connections inside...

Guys, I can tell you that the 180's are really nice mono-blocks. Based on my conversation with Tony and Bob they have really pushed the envelope with these. Also, I believe they will be at CES this year.

12-30-11: Rlwainwright
Negative feedback, transformers? Ummm, no thanks. I'll stick with my BK Butler designed and built TDB-5150. BK's designs are revolutionary and the build quality is superb.

www.ButlerAudio.com

-RW-

Hardly a fair comparison when the Butlers cost over 2-1/2 times as much as the Bob Carvers.

The Butler is no doubt a stupendous design. His guitar pedal effects are legendary and I have a friend who used to work for him and holds his abilities in awe.

Still, that doesn't mean Carver's new tube amps should be dismissed because they have user-selectable feedback levels, which are probably relatively low (especially the 11dB setting) compared to many amps.

Classic mode, the feedback is approximately 20 dB, a value used by most vintage amplifiers and Contemporary mode, feedback is limited to about 11 dB. I personally prefer the classic. For my system they were not just a little jump but significant and the other amps I have used are not slouches by any means. I was able to park them before I get the PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC upgrade board. I would love to hear the Butlers I bet their awesome.