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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
clearthink
1,421 posts
 
arcticdeth"Yup, he is a stand up gentleman!"

Bob Carver may be a genius, a saint, an honorable human being worthy of a presidential medal but some of the people he has working for him are slime check out this bold threat, intimidation, and ultimatum:


fmalitz25 posts08-12-2019 4:10pmI have to warn you that I'm rather upset. I'm Frank Malitz, Bob's partner and close friend, and I'm the chief executive officer. Bobby's the president.We will be prosecuting clearthink to the full extent of the law unless he prints a retraction in the next 10 days. Conversely, he may choose to present solid evidence to back up his absurd and false claim, and make no mistake: whatever evidence he offers up will be examined in a court of law. I will keep you guys posted unless my lawyer tells me not to. If my lawyer says he's entitled to this as an opinion, I will accept it and apologize. It's still a lie.



Well he never prosecuted me at all what I think happened here is that he came in here with big man lawyers and threats and ultimatums and demands to protect, promote, and advertise his business and then may be he discovers oh boy this "clearthink" guy is a real guy who owns businesses and maybe he has real corporate lawyers and may be we just should just be quiet rather than try to explain the origin of terms such as "Flame Linear" and "Surefire" as has been explained by technically competent readers in this thread. May be.

Or may be there is a vast conspiracy in the audio community to portray and characterize Carver products as incendiary.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,423 posts
 
Bob Carver is a great guy, my wife and I had a very long talk with him at RMAF in 2017. We did not discuss audio at all, just talked about everyday things. He is a wealth on knowledge, besides the audio.

However, his earlier products were built to a low price point and the quality of construction certainly wasn’t High End. The only amp I liked from his earlier days was the Silver Seven. I owned a Phase Linear 700 back in the 70’s and although it never, ever caught fire, I thought it was grainy sounding with my Rectilinear 3 speakers. I traded it in at Natural Sound and bought a GAS Son of Ampzilla at 80wpc compared to 700 watts from the Phase Linear. The GAS was a keeper, the Phase Linear was not.

@drkingfish,

As much as you love your Carver, the McIntosh tube equipment will appreciate in value where the Carver will depreciate. The McIntosh will certainly outlive the Carver. It’s like comparing a Economy car to a Mercedes 500.
santsuru
11 posts
 
The first "audiophile system" I ever listened to was in college. All the physics students had the best equipment and the fellow that had the system that I listened to the most had a Phase Linear with Advent speakers. That system was played almost twenty four hours a day and at ear damaging levels for several years (certainly five years and probably ten). It was never broken damaged the entire time I listened to the system. After leaving college I always tried to find Bob Carver products. I have through time upgraded integrated amps and even a Carver CD player that I got rid of because I couldn't find someone to repair the player. I now have a HT system that I listen to for music as well and I power my three zones with two Sunfire TGA-7401's. I am happy and I would love to create a reason to buy a new Carver Tube amplifier but it doesn't fit my application currently. If I decide to go back to a two channel setup and a Carver amp is available I would certainly buy one. I had a question about the fuses in the Sunfire amps I own and submitted a question online to the Bob Carver site and got a phone call from Frank and he spent almost an half hour talking to me and answering my questions. If I were to grouse about something it would be that Frank was so helpful that I had a hard time asking a question but that is a compliment not a complaint. I am only writing this because I have a brand loyalty and have been supported by the Bob Carver company . Thanks,
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,497 posts
 
I'm still enjoying my Carver 350 Mono blocks. Best amp(s) I have owned.

ozzy
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,423 posts
 
@ozzy,

Your 350 mono blocks are really something special.
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