Peeking inside a Carver Crimson 275 Tube Amplifier


So, I just had to pop the hood on the Carver Crimson 275 tube amplifier. I was so curious as to how this little guy weighs so little and sounds so lovely.

  • The layout is simple and clean looking. Unlike the larger monoblocks (that cost $10k), this model uses a PCB.
  • The DC restorer circuit is nicely off to one side and out of the way. It doesn’t look all that complicated but I’m no electrical engineer. Why don’t more designers use this feature? It allows the power tubes to idle around 9.75w. Amazingly efficient.
  • The amp has very good planned out ventilation and spacing. No parts are on top of each other.
  • Most of the parts quality is good. There’s a host of Dale resistors, what look like Takmans, nice RCA jacks, heavy teflon hookup wire, and so on.
  • Some of the parts quality is questionable. There’s some cheap Suntan (Hong Kong mfr.) film caps coupled to the power tubes and some no name caps linked to the gain signal tubes. I was not happy to see those, but I very much understand building stuff to a price point.
Overall, this is a very tidy build and construction by the Wyred4Sound plant in California is A grade. I’m wondering a few things.

Does the sound quality of this amp bear a relationship to the fact that there’s not too much going on in the unit? There are very few caps--from what this humble hobbyist can tell--in the signal chain. And, none of these caps are even what many would consider decent quality--i.e. they aren’t WIMA level, just generic. This amplifier beat out a PrimaLuna Dialogue HP (in my room/to my ears...much love for what PrimaLuna does). When I explored the innards of the PrimaLuna, it was cramped, busy and had so much going on--a way more complicated design.

Is it possible that Bob Carver, who many regard as a wily electronics expert, is able to truly tweak the sound by adding a resistor here or there, etc.? Surely all designers are doing this, but is he just really adroit at this? I wonder this because while some parts quality is very good to excellent, I was shocked to see the Suntan caps. They might be cheaper than some of the Dale resistors in the unit. I should note that Carver reportedly designed this amp and others similar with Tim de Paravicini--no slouch indeed!

I have described the sound of this amp as delicious. It’s that musical and good. But, as our esteemed member jjss [ @jjss ] pointed out in his review, he wondered if the sound quality could be improved further still. He detected a tiny amount of sheen here and there [I cannot recall his exact words.] even though he loved it like I do.

I may extract the two .22uF caps that look to be dealing with signal related to the 12at7 gain tubes and do a quick listening test.
128x128jbhiller

Kinda silly.. doesn’t take an engineer to look up the transformer part number and see it’s only rated for 15 watts. . Doesn’t take an engineer to measure output at only 15 to 17 watts per channel.. pick on science nerds all you want. 

Well, it doesn't take an engineer to throw out all of ASR's testing and your conclusions because the amps in question are not shown to be actual amps built by Wyred4Sound for the Carver Corporation.  The logic above and at ASR is dime store at best.  But, hey, if it turns out Carver puts a 15w OPT from Edcor in its amps and they cannot actually come close to spec, then yes that's a problem. 

It's clear folks are assuming what they seek to prove.  I'm not an engineer--I'm a lawyer.  Such conclusions would never make it into the record from a law perspective (which is a way lower threshold than scientific method).  Think about that.   Hey, this vacuum cleaner is defective Judge and killed my wife.  My expert says its wiring was faulty.  Judge:  But you cannot say the vacuum actually came of the manufacturer's line.  You can't cite to a bona fide serial number on the vacuum. 

I will say, however, Frank Malik should step up and explain this away (if he can) as folks are coming with pitchforks for his brand. 

Sure that’s cool, now all Carver has to do is explain how 19 lbs of tube amp from his factory breaks the laws of physics to drive an honest 75 Watts per side 😂

It will definitely involve "magic transformers". I guess they didn't have the magic ones on hand for Carver fest 😥

Yes, let's see how it plays out.  I may even open mine up to take a look.  It's tough to get into the transformer covers as you have to remove the circuit boards completely, which is a PIA!  

The amp does sound great.  I had it side by side with a Primaluna HP Integrated and it sounded better to me.  I was quite familiar with the Primaluna too.  

Before all this controversy, I posted (above) about how some of the parts quality was great and other parts were cheap stuff that I wouldn't put into anything.  

@mulveling you are correct in that some moderate to low power amps sound awesome and that's what matters.  I also agree that if the Carver Corporation made material misrepresentations about the amplfier's capabilities that would not be acceptable. 

Frank Malik (owner of Carver Corp) said he will provide responses to some of the questions raised in the forums about the amp.  And so we wait....

A little birdie told me that the amps subject of ASR’s testing were, in fact, $600 kit amps--differing in quality from actual units sold with serial numbers.

@jbhiller Do you have any evidence to support this claim?

I’ve been in the industry for about 47 years. @mulveling has an excellent point, one which I’ve also found troubling. I’m a big fan of the Harmon Kardon Citation 2 which is a stereo 60W/channel amplifier. It weighs about 3 times more. But its made of the same materials. We make a 60 watt monoblock amp that lacks the weight of an output transformer and it weighs about 25 pounds while employing an aluminum chassis.

IMO something doesn’t add up. Put plainly, prior to the Carver amp, no stereo or monoblock tube amps capable of 75 watts that weighed so little were ever made! Since this spec comes from the Carver website: https://www.bobcarvercorp.com/copy-of-crimson-raven-features-spec

I’m inclined to think one of two things. (Using Occam’s Razor...); one explanation is that the weight is a typo. The other explanation, the weight is correct, requires too many other things (some quite wild) such that the answer is for too complex to be correct.

The problem here is that a 19 pound amp would also very coincidentally be about the same weight as a tube amp capable of about 17 watts per channel. I don’t like it when coincidences like that pop up- it makes me think something is fishy.

You are in a position to shed some light on this, and apparently possess the required skills to do what needs to be done, as evidenced by the work you talked about prior on this thread.

I’ve become quite curious and am holding all explanations in abeyance. Could you weigh your amplifier and relay to us that value? Could you remove the output transformer cover and show us what the output transformer looks like? If the ASR review is not of the same amp they are doing a disservice IMO.

@atmasphere 

the amp weighs 19.4 lbs by my scale, with no ac cord attached, tubes in place

here is the asr thread, ralph, it is long, jim clark responds on pg 6, and the conversation ensues from there, with photos from carverfest where kits were distributed

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/carver-crimson-275-measurements.29271/

doesn't explain the magic of a 20 lb amp making 75 wpc, but there is the info