Since I now own the Carver Raven 350 amps, I have become very interested in the Carver Amazing Line Source speakers. But I have not been able to actually hear them. Can anyone who has heard them comment as to the sound quality?
Ozzy, Great job on the DEQX investigation! Since your past speakers were of higher efficiency others might have just settled that the Carvers need too much power, and sent them back. Smart move on the fuses as well. Complicated setups take time to optimize, and your knowledge/familiarity with you system is essential. I'll bet I can almost hear it from Florida now.
@ozzy Very cool that you were able to diagnose and fix the issue. You had been 'quiet' so I wondered if they weren't working out the way you expected or had hoped for. Terrific hearing you are happy with both the Carver ALS speakers as well as Carver's amps!
It's also reassuring to hear that Carver will stand by their components. Nice!!!
Thanks. Yeah, while I was going crazy, Bob was always available. He also was quite stumped by the problem. In a few days I will reintroduce the SR blue fuses to the amps.
I also had 5 SR HFT's on each of my DIY speakers. With the Carvers, I'm not sure where to start. I called Synergistic and they said "when I find proper placements to let them know!" Anyone have any suggestions?
Kudos, Ozzy, for resolving this very non-obvious problem. Great news, as others have said!
Instead of being 6 installed in the output jumper spaces there were only 4 and the other 2 were put in the RCA input section. Leaving the output without 2 key jumpers. I will add that I bought this unit used from the Music Room. The previous owner must have moved the jumpers.
I’m a little puzzled by this, as I believe your Premate has only four outputs (each in both balanced and unbalanced form), rather than the six that for example are provided in my DEQX HDP-5. And it appears that there **should** be two jumpers on the RCA input section (which adjust the input sensitivity over a fairly small range of 2.3 db). So perhaps the presence of only four jumpers on the output section was correct, but two of them had been placed on jumper blocks that are not used by the Premate.
In any event, as you have seen the output jumpers provide adjustment over a range of 12.5 db, which of course is substantial. And who knows what the consequences would be of simply having no jumpers on two jumper blocks that are in fact used in this design.
Finally, FWIW, I purchased my HDP-5 new and I’ve never changed the jumper settings from their default positions. Those result in max gain on the analog inputs (which I use for LP, in addition to using the digital inputs for other sources), and 4.9 db less than max on the analog outputs, which drive my VAC power amp and (in bypass mode) my Stax headphone amp.
So are you saying you have 8 jumpers? The circuit board on my Premate identifies it as a HDP-4. And there is 6 jumpers. 2 each for the high, mid, and bass. The jumpers were originally only on the mid and bass outputs. There was none on the high outputs and 2 were used on the RCA input section. Perhaps the 2 on the mid is not supposed to be used on the Premate version but I don’t really know.
The instructions shows all 6 on the outputs. But, it also shows using 2 on the RCA input section. I have a total of 6 of the jumpers to use. On the RCA input section I now have nothing there, but I am only using balanced inputs.
It’s been a long time since I looked inside my unit, and I didn’t pay much attention to the jumpers when I did so. But based on what the manual says, yes, I would assume it has 8 jumpers. I do recall that the circuit board in mine says HDP-4, as you found also. (Mine has a separate circuit board in addition, which provides the processing for the HDP-5’s touchscreen, its ethernet interface, and perhaps some other functions that are not included in the Premate).
The instructions shows all 6 on the outputs. But, it also shows using 2 on the RCA input section. I have a total of 6 of the jumpers to use.
I’m looking at the latest version of the manual ("Rev 1, applies to DEQX-Cal version 3.02"). Since that manual applies to your Premate as well as to my HDP-5 and to other models, and the same board is used in both of our units, but the Premate provides two stereo pairs of outputs while the HDP-5 provides three, it seems evident that only 4 of the 6 output jumpers shown in the manual are necessary for the Premate. And therefore perhaps only those 4 (plus the two on the inputs) were provided initially.
The jumpers were originally only on the mid and bass outputs. There was none on the high outputs and 2 were used on the RCA input section.
Since the two sets of outputs on your unit are identified on the rear panel as being for mains and subs, I would have thought that the way you originally found the jumpers to have been placed (mid and bass, plus two for the RCA analog inputs) would have been correct.
So as I said in my previous post I’m puzzled. It sounds like the way you found all of the jumpers initially was exactly where I would have expected them to be in the Premate.
Thanks but no the high- output needs the jumpers in place. Without them the DEQX unit will output considerable hiss through the balanced outputs. But, perhaps the mid jumpers are not needed with my model.
I sent a email to DEQX on Sunday asking for advise. I hope they answer.
I just noticed that on the rear panel of the Premate the "main" outputs are also identified as L2/R2, and the "sub" outputs as L1/R1. And the jumper block information on page 166 of the manual of course uses L and R designations, rather than bass, mids, and highs.
So when you referred to the jumpers initially being on the mids and bass, are you sure that they were on L1/R1 and L2/R2, as opposed to L3/R3 and L2/R2?
Inside my DEQX Premate unit the jumpers are labeled as; R bass, L bass, R mid, L mid, R high, L high. On the back of the unit the outputs are labeled as you say which also corresponds to the DEQX home screen. Confusing? So is the manual...
All I can say is with the output jumpers on all 3 output sections the balanced out plays dead quite. Removing the high jumpers introduces very high hiss with the balanced out.
Ozzy, your experience with the Carver amp reminds me of mine with my Carver Cherry 180 amp. I bought it around 9 years ago. I bought a new custom speaker and started to drive it with the Carver. However, the bass sounded weak and the bias meter would go back and forth full sweep like crazy with bass transients. I thought there was something wrong with the amp. I called Bob, and he told me unequivocally it’s not the amp but the speakers. Well, he was right. The speaker designer reversed the mid/bass crossover with the tweeter section. I’ve also called him with other issues and he always came up with an answer to fix it. He’s like no other designer I know.
I'm not surprised, Ozzy, even though you weren't the original purchaser. Alan Langford at DEQX has been very responsive and helpful to me on several occasions.
As I mentioned in one of my posts yesterday I haven't looked inside my unit in a long time, and when I did I wasn't paying much attention to the jumpers. But I assume that my HDP-5 has 8 jumpers, since with its three left & right output channels (one more left & right pair than your Premate provides) + left & right analog inputs it presumably requires all 8 of them.
I thought you or anybody with the A L S dialed in would be pleased. Glad to hear of the progress, has the adventure been worth it knowing your previous setup was beyond solid?
Thank you for your question. The Carver ALS has been an adventure. Between ordering, shipping problems, lack of sub etc. Then there is the speaker placement requirements. I wasn't prepared to be moving the speakers so much. (I have a rotator cuff injury). My previous DIY speakers and external crossover are really very good and I am still using them with my home theater equipment and I would not hesitate to put them in as full time if needed. They far exceed anything I listened to prior to the Carvers. Yes, it all seems to be worth it, the sound quality today is very pleasing.
The couple things that I'm not sure of is where to place the Synergistic HFT's that I used with the other speakers and if side wall room treatment is still needed.
I heard them at AXPONA and I thought they sounded great playing some fusion jazz but that's the only thing I heard on them. I did NOT hear them on classical orchestral music which is a great test for all systems and speakers. Of course you have to be familiar with what orchestras sound like in person or it will all be lost on you. They sounded great during the brief audition I had on the type of music they were playing.
I ended up trading in the Carvers towards Focal Sopra’s (lost quite a bit $). The Carvers just seemed to need too much power. Also there was a upper midrange/lower treble glare. As I tested them it was at about 6K-10khz. I really had high hopes for the speakers based on how much I like the amps.
I heard them at AXPONA. I noticed the crossovers were set at max for bass but the minimum for treble, probably due to the glare I described. The sound was just ok, but they did not play any music with any dynamics, and the presenter (Frank) talked wayyy too much.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
