Bob Carver tube amps

I have nothing to offer on Carver tube products, but I do have an old M-200t poweramp whose duty has been just to run the midrange on the analog setup in my living room. It’s been hooked directly to a pair of Altec 511 horns w/Peavey drivers for the past 30 years. It is silent at idle, never pops on turnon or turnoff (both important with that load) and produces crystal clear sound. It won’t handle a capacitive load (goes into oscillation), but I don’t use one.

It is one of the famous or infamous ’magnetic field’ amps that tended to burn power supply resistors. I have a Carver receiver of somewhat later vintage that does just that if you don’t put a fan on top, but this one has never had a heating problem.

I own the Black Raven 350-watt mono blocks and I am still really impressed. Way better than my previous amps. The Atmasphere M-60 Mk3 mono blocks and the Pass Labs 350.5.

ozzy

@silverfoxvtx1800 take a look see at my rig

Avoid Bob Carver amps The Crimpson 275 that is rated at 75 watts per channel has 15 watt audio transformers under the big transformer cans. It only made 15 watts per channel.

Hello silverfoxvtx1800. It is easy to knock a product you have never heard or never owned. Carver is so controversial folks love him or they hate him. He pioneered open baffel speakers with lots of woofers and long flat panel tweeters, itsy bitsy box speakers with passive radiators, tube amps you can put your hands on (the tubes!) when running full blast, and a very slim (almost a pole) tall speaker (uses a sub) that will out "reality" any speaker put next to it. That speaker, driven by Bob's big tube amp, put to shame a famous company's flagship speaker in a A/B comparison at a well known LA area dealer on the edge of a canyon a few years ago. The LAOC Audio Society was there. I have been a fan (obviously) for a very long time, owned the "Mag AMp M400," tuners, tape decks, speakers, and sold them in a retail setting. My 50 year old tuner failed recently, but I don't blame Bob. His gear was always reasonably priced.

Bob is easily bored and starts a new company every 10 years. Perhaps some of the folks involved in some of those companies were not A+ material, but it's not Bob's fault. Whatever you purchase, be sure you can listen to it in your home with the rest of your gear and return it if you don't like it in a week or so. Listen to it first, let your ears tell you if it's any good. Nobody else's opinion matters. I trust Mr. Carver. Happy Listening!