Carver, THE standard of excellence IMO


I have read many discussions on these forums and others about many people having difficulty getting hold of or information from the manufacturers or dealers about problems with their gear.  Some wait weeks,months or forever for a response.Yesterday (Sunday) I thought I was having a small problem with my Carver Crimson 350 amps and I did some tests described in the manual to check the KT120 tubes.  I was getting some strange meter readings and couldn't understand why.  So I went to the Carver site and wrote a detailed email at that site, expecting to hear back sometime this week.  At the time I did not know it went straight to the president and co-owner Frank Malilz, but it does. Frank marked it "very important" and forwarded to Bob Carver who at 9:15 pm (my time) sent me a detailed answer that solved my problems.  Are you kidding me!!!! straight to the pres and then to the designer (we all know who is a legend) and back to me within 6 hrs ON A SUNDAY!  To paraphrase a truck commercial....Carver doesn't raise the bar, it sets it.

I know not everyone can afford a set of $9500 monos but I am sure the service would be the same on Carver's new 275s at less than $2800.  I have heard the 275s at Axpona and they are voiced extremely close to the 350s just not as much power.  For most set ups they would be magnificent.  Who else gives the amp AND tubes a TRANSFERABLE 5 yr warranty?  Both the 350 and 275 play for hrs and never get hot.  Handmade in the USA and signed by the legend himself.  If you are looking for a tube amp in this category that plays far far above it's price you owe it to yourself to check out the 275 (or the 350s if you can go that way financially, 10 yr warranty on everything, if you talk to Bob he would probably give you a 50 yr warranty on amp AND tubes, I am not kidding in the least.)  I have no interest in any way with Bob Carver Corp other than a love of it's products and service.  I've posted some here before so you know I'm not a shill. I just wanted to educate some on this forum about my experience, about a great product and outstanding service from the people who make that product.  I believe they really care about audio and their customers.
DrMark  (Doc from MI on some Carver sites)
drkingfish
this is all I could find.............." It sounds to me like these clubs of legend were driving an amp hard without properly ventilating them, so any fires or problems resulting from failure due to overheating would seem to be more the fault of the club rather than the amplifier or its designer. The owner's manual does have a mention of 'adequate ventilation.'
I worked for a touring sound company that used Phase Linear 200's, 400's and 700's exclusively into the 90's. Yes, we had amps fail but rarely in the manner of the 'Flame Linear' legend, more due to thin sheet metal chassis coming apart because they weren't designed for touring use or stagehands pushing transistor covers onto transistors between the fins of heat sinks and causing shorts or bad power blowing fuses. With about 35 Phase Linear amps we'd have maybe four channel failures a year due to causes not related to operator error, and we worked 'em hard. We had many more problems related to band engineers who associated distortion with loudness and stagehands who think they're airline baggage handlers. Amps these days are loaded with protection circuits the PL's didn't have and designers have much better simulation tools available, Carver did an excellent job given the era he did it in."
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss
So from someone who did the walk (Mark and Mary) "operator error", abuse, and being used for something they weren't designed to do and even so doing it for a long time and that's just 3 of his designs. 

One more thing....have you ever seen the voice coil of a woofer glow cherry red.  I have.  Take a woofer not designed for a lot of power and with poor ventilating qualities, hook it up to a powerful amp and push it as hard as you can and you can heat up the voice coil tremendously.  If the woofer catches fire, as it can, it's the amps fault???? I've heard these stories about blaming Carver amps for that.
Please research your postings before you
1) perpetuate a myth and less knowledgeable audio people trying to find good info here think it's true2) insult a great man who pioneered much of what we use today, is still designing and working at 78, and who has forgotten much more than you will ever know about audio. 
As a disclaimer.... I know Bob Carver, have spent a number of days with him, own some of his equipment, have discussed audio with him, most of which was beyond my comprehension, and women and football which I do know something about and have even examined him for what HIPAA.  rightly denies me mentioning.  In addition I found him to be a very nice, friendly, generous, humble man.  In my profession I do occasionally meet men and women who could be called a "genius".  Certainly not all, but a higher proportion than would be normal for people you meet or deal with are conceited assholes, smart as they are very few people like them, tolerate would be a better word.  Bob Carver is far, far, from that. I don't do "internet war" and this is the last I'll post re the person who made such a disparaging remark w/out any proof about Carver amps. (not R9s he just talking about his experiences, he could have been working on something M&M were using)

Doc from MI
Also - the title of this thread should be clarified as "Latest-Gen Bob Carver Vacuum Tube Amps" (in order to avoid ambiguity with "legacy" Carver products)


First of all, many thanks to @fmalitz for joining the conversation. I'm a Carver fan, Phase Linear was before my time. I've owned a couple Carver components and an excellent Sunfire amp.

I believe the member who used the term "starting fires" was not being literal. He was talking about controversy and innuendo. Thanks to Frank for chiming in.
Never heard of any of Bob's amps catching fire. Kudos to him for his innovation and quality products.


Thank you for jumping in Frank and Doc.Your detailed factual information is very much appreciated!
We will be prosecuting clearthink to the full extent of the law unless he prints a retraction in the next 10 days.


Could you please just go ahead and sue him anyway? I will be happy to chip in. I will be watching and eagerly awaiting the post where either he eats crow big time with a real and complete and believable retraction, or the clock runs out and he at last gets served his due.

Served. Heh. Good one. We can only hope.