Carver Pro ZR1600

Dmason...The Carver is not my first adventure into the ProSound waters. I have a QSC amp which I bought for its capability with 2 ohm load, driving subwoofers. In the SW application I reasoned that superlow distortion and the like is not critical. But, I have run this amp full range into MG1.6 and Dynaudio speakers, and it sounds embarrasingly good. Checking the specs, I find that at low power level, typical of home audio, distortion spec is 0.06. Not too shabby!

Maybe in the old days ProSound meant a Bogen PA system, with rotten sound for music. Times have changed.

Eldartford, ...if ALL of those amps are ZR's, I want to come to your house...I cannot imagine what that is going to be like in a couple of months. It may be of interest to know that Ashly also has Tripath amps, 4 and 6 channel muscle amps which look pretty good as well, and they have an impeccable reputation for quality in all their products. Crest, Crown too have digital switching amps which should be explored. Either way, the pricing for all these brands has been revised downward, the last 12 months, due to market conditions, and decreased overhead associated with production by way of increased efficiency, less heat output, lesser component requirements, etc. Vive le Revolution!

I have a question for you guys that are familiar with these Tri-Path amps. I have heard two of these amps, but not under conditions that i was familiar with or could really pass judgment with. Compared to a modified Adcom amp, i thought that the Tri-Path's were a step forward.

How do these amps do with lower impedances ? From what i've seen, they are higher in distortion at 8 ohms and measurably lacking in terms of the ability to pass current as impedance drops. On top of that, if they are like most other amps, the distortion will climb noticeably as impedance is reduced.

Given that i tend to prefer speakers that have a lower impedance with high quantities of reflected EMF ( multiple drivers, large motor structures, speakers with sharp phase angles like E-stat's ), i have to wonder how suitable they would be for installations using anything but benign dynamic loads ?

In my book, a "good" amp should be able to drive most any load that you throw at it. Obviously, some will do better than others due to build quality and circuit design, but then again, some do miserably with all but a few types of speakers. As such, what i'm asking is "how universal are these amps" and "do you think that the results that you are obtaining in your system will be easy to duplicate in other systems" ? Sean
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sean...Get with the program!! :)

Sean, the best answers are to be found at the ongoing threads specifically on the Carver Pro ZR Tripath amps and modification discussion, at audiocircle.com.

The short answer to your question is that from what I am seeing, they are pretty much load-invariant. I sat and listened to a ZR1600 cruise through difficult and highly dynamic material on a pair of Maggie 1.6 which were enjoying that particular combination ALOT. Resistive loads don't seem to worry these amps at all, nor do wildly varying moduli. Further, they run merely warm to the touch. I have twice read that some are buying them for their Apogees, which kinda says it all.