Are Carver amps worth a damn?

I think your amps are on par with the rest of your system. It seems to be a nice budget system. To move up, you will need to replace each piece, one by one, until you have a system of the next(or higher) level. Carver amps are OK, not great, but serviceable. And in a HT system, they are fine. The step up to their Lightstar/Sunfire products is a big one, if you have brand loyalty. But, if I was upgrading, I would explore everything to see what I liked, and go from there.

the receiver is the weakest link, imho - no way to get good *audio* out of a home-theatre setup. get a good audio-only preamp. if ya *have* to have a home-theatre setup w/yer audio set-up, get a preamp that allows one input to default to that input's controls, & plug yer h-t into *that*. linn, vtl, & sonic frontiers are three companies that make preamps that can do this, there may be others. also, no such thing as a hi-fi cassette deck, at *any* price. even the nak dragon is mid-fi... doug

I switched from Carver-Yamaha To Sunfire and have been very happy. Ive heard some of those Hi-Fi ($$$) systems that are no better than mine and I too listen to both HT and 2ch Stereo. The Cinema Grande can do both very well. What ever your direction you'll still have to test drive it in your system to see what works. Hafler is very good but I personally like my Cinema Grande and would buy another should I ever have the need.

Hello,I have a pair of Carver TFM-35 amps in my all Carver system.I just compared a Parasound HCA-3500 and even my son said that the Carvers sounded much better! Yes I have heard some amps with a little more detail but none compare to the dynamics and soundstage without the listener fatigue of some so called high-end amps.Also I would use the two TFM-35 amps in a vertical bi-amp setup and buy another amp for the sub and center channel.And the TFM-35 amps do not limit current like a lot of other amps do that is why they are so dynamic.If you have the upgrade bug I would try the Sunfire amps.Good Luck SonicBob

I had a TFM-35 in my HT setup for awhile. It got replaced by an Adcom GFA-585 limited, which just absolutely blew the carver out of the water. IMHO, The TFM-35 is definitely a weak spot in your system.