first i would say this thread is nice in that folks raising issues, and @jbhiller and i as current owners of these amps chiming in with thoughts and info, are keeping it positive and cordial - i think that is important, we can see other threads being much less so, and that can be become awfully unpleasant
second, i think to j-b’s comment about pricing of the 275, my own take is that the carver principal(s) were careful to choose their price point, knowing a higher one would considerably reduce their market interest, and i think that is also why they chose to skate on thin ice to write 75 wpc - that was the desired proposition: light amp, kt120’s, $2750 new, 75 wpc, drive most real speakers in real rooms to real volumes - thusly can undercut alot of the competition with a superior value propositon - whether they did this (the power rating specifically) ethically is a fair question -- for me, as an illustration, i bought the amp a touch under $2000 used - had it been a $4000 retail amp, selling for $3000 used, i may well have not gone for it
third, i would just reiterate that in my experience and use, i am not using super efficient speakers - spendor sp100 r2 @ 89 dbwm 8 ohms nominal, harbeth monitor 40.3 xd and shl5+ both @ 86 dbwm 6 ohms - in my 19x17 dedicated room, speakers well away from room boundaries - the amp drives all the speakers very well (i listen at low to mid 70’s db average with 80+ db peaks), has terrific bass response... not bass like a pass or a hegel, but roughly as good as much more expensive tube amps such as my audio research ref series -- how it does it, with xyz feedback circuitry, maybe it is managing the distortion, maybe it is playing some nice sounding distortion, but to my ears it works very well for a tube amp, sounds very good - good detail, excellent warmth and imaging, nice drive/prat - just what one would seek from a tube amp
last point i would add, and a bit of re-emphasis on what j-b said earlier, bob carver has always been an ’against the conventional grain’ type of character/designer in the audio world, he does things differently, thinks very much out of the box, so to speak... if one understands his long history (as i do, i have been at this as an avid hobbyist since the early ’80’s), he is never been shy to push the envelope -- more often than not, he can back it up... so we shouldn’t be surprised this amp with his name on it follows that tradition - importantly, at least in my case, the amp performs, making very good music to real volumes capably
all this said, the stated specs should be honest, and that may well be on bob carver himself, at his current ripe old age, or the folks running the business at present
