Are Carver Preamps Any Good?

Carver's big claims to fame were it's amazingly powerful amps for the money and the truly Amazing Loudspeakers.
An old amp like the TFM-35 was seriously powerful and fairly musical, but it took a non-Carver pre-amp to get the most out of it.
Those huge Carver ribbon speakers were hard to find room for, but when properly set up (rare), could rival many speakers costing thousands more. We had a pair sitting next to B&W 801's and several good Magnepans of the day, and the Carvers didn't just hold their own, they did better on tons of material.
But pre-amps? Nope....there are MANY good cheap old SS pre's out there that are better.

Name them. imo, the Carver C-16 pre was way better than any equal priced produce from NAD, Rotel, Proton, Adcom, Audio Source, MTX/Soundcraftsman etc.
The pre has a complex tone control section that was more like an eq and works well for subtal changes and a loudness control for bass at low volume levels which was rare on most preamps. It also has a full phono stage which may be of use for the vinal revival crowd.
The Carver Sonic Holograpy was a good idea and did work if you took the time to set the speakers up right. The preamp would be right at home with products that are in the same $$$ leauge. I agree, it is not high end, but okay for $200.
The C-16 is kind of rare so I would get one to just try it.

The C-19 was a very good pre for the $$

Remember Carver amps being better (although they were just OK) than their preamps. While the preamps sometimes had lots of features, they were not transparent and the bass were not their strong point - features were. If you are going to drop two hundred or so, adcom 555 or 565 sound better, but they don't look as nice and lack the extras Carver provides. do like Carver's champaign finish...a Carver rack with the Amazing speakers still look cool today.

Carver stuff always sells because they are inexpensive and great bang for buck pieces. They sound decent, but you get what you pay for. Great for a starter system. But as your ears get a little more discriminating, you'll move on to something better. I still own two carver preamps that I don't use. I'm going to give one to my 12 year old son to get him started in audio.