Peeking inside a Carver Crimson 275 Tube Amplifier

If you added $3-400 kin parts ,especially coupling capacitors , Vishay naked resistors , better wiring and Thst cheap Chinese crap has no business in a amp of this cost , rule of thumb as a ex Audii dealer only 25% of the cost actually goes into the build including all components, case , and packaging meaning $2500 including even tubes on a $10 k unit , that leaves very little for high quality transformer and chokes .too much greed for a lousy $300 in parts actually $200 or less dealer cost you could have had at least half way decent coupling caps like Mundorf Evo ,or clarity CSA ,that's just taking a piss in my opinion. 

I posted the measurements firs to HiFi Haven, then to ASR, and I am happy to answer any questions about how I performed the measurements.  It was pointed out to me by a Carver dealer that the units I have are not serialized, so I went ahead and bought a new amp which should arrive any day, and I am taking that amp (unopened) to a neutral 3rd party to be measured independently. 

I would also note that I published a subsequent review of the ZOTL-10 to HiFi Haven as well, just as another reference point.

Mostly I am here to thank JBHiller for taking the time to pull one of the cans off his output transformers.  

So many great comments here Team. Thank you.

I’m so ambivalent. Before we/I move to my/our reptilian brains and go scorched earth.... If you will allow me...

Bob Carver grew up obsessed with hifi. He was a tinkerer-turned-PhD in physics. As a boy, he reportedly showed up at McIntosh diagnostic events. These were marketing and goodwill events where McIntosh would bring its big boy engineers and semi-founders out to cities across the country inviting America to bring in their hifi kit that had ground loops, crackling pots/switches, and so on.

McIntosh would help diagnose the visitor’s product. [Don’t you wish AXPONA would have this?] I’ve heard they certainly would, without putting down other makers, explain how things could be designed better in the customer’s unit in order to avoid the customer’s issue altogether. Kind of cool. They would also service Mac stuff at these events. They traveled the US. Very different than our world today where brick and mortar is dead, and I just buy crap  because I like to play with it and it gives me an excuse to hear more beautiful music.

At any rate, Bob Carver would (again reportedly) show up to these events on occasion and bring things in like the others. Yet, Bob, was so out there, that he was brining in his OWN IDEAS as a teenager. He once (again reportedly by my research) brought a Maxwell House coffee can into the McIntosh weekend diagnostic event. He told them he was working out a circuit and was close to Xanadu--I’m editorializing now. :). They refused to plug it in out of concern for safety and electrical hazard. That said, they were impressed with the circuit (not the coffee can).

Bob is a human. A genius in my mind. I’m not sure how good he was in business decisions or business acumen. But, I don’t know what the standard is to define that.

I think Bob sat down with that European amp designer and felt romantic about the days of Marantz, HK, Scott, even HeathKit, and many others. Bob knew many of those in audio history. I think he created an amazing little hot rod of a product. If I had to guess, I’d bet he thought we have come so far and sometimes we get lost in the simplicity of things that made good sound.

The marketplace is better for this Crimson 275 amplifier, regardless of whether it puts out wattage of 17, 35, or 75 (or even 90 as I think Frank M. has claimed at times). It’s a cracking little device.

Look, I sold a top of the line Primaluna because I preferred this little dude. He struck a spot that my 300B couldn’t reach. This thing works.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This is not a perfect piece of gear or "the best"--whatever that is. [Do you ever believe you’ve had a "best" anything? Best pizza, lover, beer, bourbon, day off, etc...].

It’s just a little amp that likes to boogie. Does your/my other amp like to boogie? I’ve had both the boogiers and those that won’t. Enough said.

Watch, this amp will be like that girlfriend or opportunity that I let escape due to forced apathy. 😏

@paulbottlehead ,  You open the stuff up way more frequently than I.  So, THANK YOU.  It was a bit of a pain to do this.  I had to, incidentally, re-solder the wires linking the meter to the board.  That involved careful desoldering and patience to be clean and precise in tight spaces.  Then my OCD kicks in and I have to check everything out in the compartment.  Does this weld look good?  This could be cleaner right? 

Thank you for chiming in!  I hope the weather subsides and you get your Crimson 275 from the dealer to test. 

Don't forget!!!!  AFTER YOU TEST YOU MUST SIT AND LISTEN!

Sometimes stuff that doesn't test so hot sounds great.  I have a $300 guitar amp like that.  It'll smoke big boys with its swagger in tone.  

Keep us posted too Sir!! We welcome you here in the land of subjective, compulsive, and irrational audiophiles. :)

@jbhiller those are nice respectful words… but it’s not a two-way street. One man buys a top of the line loaded diesel powered $75,000 pick up truck because he really likes the looks of it and just needs to cruise to work and back and around town. To him that pick up truck checked all the boxes and he thinks it’s amazing.

another man buys the exact same model because he needs to move bulldozers across the country.

Now imagine that the manufacturer didn’t put a 1000 ftlbs of torque (edited for one’s happiness) diesel motor in the truck. No, he put a 200 ft lbs of toque four-cylinder motor in the truck.

Now I ask you, it may be a wonderfully made four-cylinder motor. It may cruise around town for the first owner just fine. But do you think anyone’s going to be impressed or praise the manufacturer or respect them as a company because for one client it could cruise around town smoothly? For the second owner it couldn’t even toe a lawn mower not to mention bulldozers? They didn’t better the market with an amazing truck. They pulled a fast one and out of greed, laughed in both owners faces. Fool me once… is the old saying.

I’ll also remind… to hide, cover over, our reply that we received was… we’ll the carver fest kits were 35 wpc versions? (Same parts and they know it) and, we’ll… that’s with one channel measured with most of the bass pulled out to meet 75 watts… hard to respect or admire a cover up. Respect is a 2-way street. Do they respect us? They think that we’ll never know the difference, we’re idiots. We’ll believe 35 watt kits and one channel measured… or they think, we won’t understand specs, just read the referrals.. that’s what matters.. meanwhile the bulldozer can’t go anywhere. The work can’t get done.