Are Carver Preamps Any Good?

They have their place in the world - but not the audiophile world, IMO. Carver offers reliable, attractive components if you don’t ask them to be the star of the show. By that, I mean that you’re not expecting them to enthrall you with passionate listening sessions. If you just want something that’s a step or two above the ordinary, they might meet your needs.

"Carver offers reliable, attractive components if you don’t ask them to be the star of the show."

They will not be the star of the show in most modern well executed audiophile type systems.

They can be though when some of the features come in handy as tweaks, like the tone controls, l/r variable blend, flexible mc/mm phono stage, etc.

Mapman is right. I had a C-1 for years. Then I switched to tubes. Got a C-9 hologram generator, since I love the sound. I ran the C-1 with a 7270 McIntosh, and all kinds of Klipsch speakers, and the results were good for many years, but tubes can't be beat.

Mapman, Polk432,
My opinion was poorly expressed. Talking about “audiophile world” components sounds much too snooty and I didn’t mean to come off that way. Given my current set-up, the Carver components that I’ve heard leave something to be desired, but back in the 70’s, they were the object of lust.

That's when I owned them. One day MBL will be in the same league if I live that long. Best of luck...I think.