Carver Power Amps

Sorry to start such a heated dispute over Carver amps.I can still say without a shadow of doubt,and all my friends who have heard my Parasound HCA-3500/Adcom GFP-750/Paradigm Reference Studio/100v.2 system agree that the Parasound sounds less compressed at high volumes,more extended top-end,and much better bass extension, bass control, bass tightness, and bass power and punch than the Carver A-760X amp that I owned for years!

Paul I don't own either but it seems like your defending your own amps and the amount you spent on them LOL!!!!
Why can't the Parasound or Carver be a reference or did you write the book on that too! Sorry I just find it funny you put hope it helps at the end of all that ranting.Not everyone on this forum has to spend $6000 on amplifiers to achieve sonic bliss.I bet some of these dealers would love to see you coming!

Relax and Enjoy the Music!

Well, no dealers would like to see me coming, because I have not bought from a brick and mortar dealer, nor have I paid full price for everything that I have owned or still do....I agree with you, Gmood, I am unabashedly defending the gear I have spent money on!>:) Regardless, Carvers in general BLOW. I cannot even believe that I had said good things about Carver in some posts before, blame it on my youth and my sheer ignorance.

Gmoodl, I agree with you 100%. It's all about the music, not the electronics.

As far as Carver being a 'second class designer', I hate to bring this up, but Bob Carver has probably come up with more inovative designs than any of the high end audio designers. Any engineer, or anyone that can apreciate engineering can tell you that many 'high end' amps use principals and basic designs that have been around since the early 20th century. Carver has been an inovative and leader in the circuit design arena as pertaining to audio. I'm sure that if he wanted to, he could design an amplifier that could compete even the most highly regarded amps of today. Check out his modestly priced Sunfire series.

As a matter of fact, I remember that he designed a tube amp many years ago that sold for $20,000.00, and even the Carver skeptics had to concede to the sonic qualities of the amplifier.

Another thing, what is this continual reference to a watt from tube amps being 'greater' than a watt from a solid state amp; or that a watt from a Carver amp is less than a watt from any other amp. Sounds like voodoo is working it's magic here.

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have replaced my Levinsons or my Mac's. I think they are some of the best designed and sounding amps available. But that is in the past. Oh well.

What is very typical of this thread is the level of ignorance. Gmgood, I agree about Bemopti's long message above - I was going to respond simply "LOL." I explained above that any experience with Carver products designed by Bob Carver and marketed by Carver Corporation when he was there is irrelevant when considering the products designed amd sold after he left, from the Lightstar II through the A series amps. He didn't have anything to do with what happened after he wasn't there anymore. Is that so hard to understand?

Nevertheless, he is a capable designer, as Errivera says, and his Sunfire products are very good, even though designed with a frequency contour rather than strictly accurate.