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Owners of Carver Crimson 275 -Caution/Warning--Potential Increased Risk of Electric Shock

What's going on?:   If you own a Carver Crimson 275 amplifier there is a real potential that your amplifier does not have a proper chassis grounding scheme inside.  There is a type of grounding system involved, but the third prong of the IEC socket (the actual electrical socket on the inside of the amplifier) is left wide open on my amplifier and and at least one other amp that I have virtually confirmed (not firsthand--only through another owner).  

What does this mean?:  If one of the hookup wires carrying power/B+ came loose from its soldered weld and touched either the chassis or something conductive to the chassis and the user then touched the chassis/unit with the power on they could get a significant electric shock. There are some seriously high voltages in this tube amp (like many amps of its topology) and the result could be lethal.

Carver Corporation's Response to Status on Grounding:  I have notified Frank Malitz of the Carver Corporation about this problem.  He responded to me in writing saying the following, exact quotation, nothing more or less:  

"the design is under review with engineering and I'll contact you tomorrow." (F. Malitz)

In the interim, users may be at an increased risk of shock and bodily harm.   I would encourage you to check with an electronics expert or the Carver Corporation for further guidance, as I'm not qualified to say more than there's no confirmed chassis ground in the unit that I have and at least one other unit.  

Finally, unless you are qualified in working with high voltages do not open your unit to check for the ground wire running to the ground prong on the IEC. Please note that doing so with or without a chassis ground should only be done by someone experienced with electronics--i.e. caps must be discharged and care taken to cause an issue.  Seek professional help. 

I'm just a music lover and hobbyist.  I'm merely relaying this information out of concern for the safety of fellow humans. I'm not an expert and perhaps an expert will rule out this identified potential increased risk as non-existent.  For now, I can say that it is my opinion that there is a real reason to believe that grounding scheme might be deficient and I will not be using my amp until this is sorted out.  

I'll report any response from the Carver Corporation as soon as I hear back.  For now, my amp will sit unplugged. 

 

128x128jbhiller
raysmtb1's avatar
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raysmtb1
802 posts
 

What a huge waste of time this whole thread is. I know I know the OP likes to think that he save someone’s life. I especially like the story about Bob Carver started selling his amplifiers on eBay. Shake my head that is so funny eBay wasn’t even a twinkle in someone’s eye when Bob started in this business. The sad part is somebody’s gonna lose some sales over this and it’s going to be a dealer and good old Bob. 

this thread speaks to the bigger picture of what’s wrong with things today. People can say things and actually mean well but the problem is, they aren’t responsible for anything to do with the product. They have 1/10 of the knowledge that Bob has about these amplifiers but they can do hundreds of times more damage than they do actually helping the situation. 
 

this reminds me of that Danny guy from GR research Who takes apart other people‘s products and beats the daylights out of them to his thousands of fans. There’s just something wrong about the whole thing. Guys are out there trying to do the best they can and then somebody they don’t know , can come out of nowhere and take shots at them. Man that bums me out. Why would anybody ever wanna try and open up a manufacturing business?

jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller OP
1,445 posts
 

Oh my. Get it all out! 

jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller OP
1,445 posts
 

I love the product. I wish it was built with a better grounding scheme though. It’s 2022. It’s not 1955.  

nonayerbiz
2 posts
 

If anyone else is interested in Frank Malitz, he's got 5,200 answers on Quora in which the vast majority are worthless. 

I think Franks quote "before my Bob Carver company went down in flames, through no fault of my own" is a bit dissonant, but that seems to be his default attitude.  I ended up here trying to find out if he was a sockpuppet account on Quora, because he interjects his bull$hit into tons of questions, goes out of he's way to be unhelpful and condescending while writing wacky racial junk.

Moving on, his current promo/scam gig is at Alta Audio which he insists is the pinnacle of sound, every other manufacturer is now crap.  BTW he just posted his business email September 29th if you need to reach him.  I'm sure he will be candid if he can find the time, but wankin...posting 50 answers a day on Quora is time consuming - fmalitz@comcast.net 

Malitz claims to be a 55 year gigging blues player, 18 year MC dirt racer, worked at/for, in his own words "65 different manufacturers", launched Samsung in the US, has owned stables of exotic sports cars since the 60's, only deals with $200,000 amp/$500,000 speakers set now, and is considered an expert witness in the electronics field.

tl;DR - Frank Malitz is a pompous ass and seemingly  a pathological liar.  All info presented here was sourced from Franks writing on Quora.


@czarivey

LOL all of Bob’s equipment doesn’t connect to safety ground, because it’s not needed and there’s no risk of electric shock.

What happens with vintage gear that has only 2 prongs for the powercords?

Gimme break dude, you’re really trippin on somethn

I registered because while Frank Malitz is a teat, this nonsense inspired me.

I've personally been shocked by a two prong Princeton Reverb playing through it.  It takes as little as 50mv to stop a heart unless every amp guide I've ever read is lying about putting one hand in your belt behind your back while you dig inside the guts of an amp.  Maybe audiophile amps are different. I don't know, but why take the risk over a $25 fix?  But whatever floats your canoe.

invalid
1,257 posts
 

Most of the older two prong corded equipment is double insulated, even some modern stuff such as my marantz avr is double insulated with a two prong cord, so it can be perfectly safe. I'm not saying the carver crimson amps are safe as I haven't looked at them.

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