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Carver sonic holography

My wife was at a thrift store and found a Carver CT-seven preamp (she said she could tell it was good because it had handles :)in perfect condition for $20 dollars(I've never thought much of Carver equipment, even when i sold it 15 years ago) - I hooked it into my system (musical fidelity studio t amp, mac mini with behringer DAC) and all I can say is WOW! I'm not one usually for gimmics but when the sonic holography is on the sound stage is as wide as the room (20ft) and instruments are razor sharp in placement(I'm a big sound stage guy) what gives? - I've tried it with mg12's,AR m5's, Vandersteen 2ces and a pair of cheap Polk monitor 40's -the sound stage on all these speakers improves dramatically and I really dig the sound i'm hearing(on most songs) - has anyone else had this experience with the sonic holography?
thymanst
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Tarsando wondered:
"And what in what high end systems is the sweet spot any more than one foot wide? That's about par for the course."

You have obviously never heard the Gallo Reference 3s or the Ohm Walsh speakers. The sweet spot on my system is about 6 feet wide and I'm sitting 11 ft. from the speakers.

-RW-
steveallen
54 posts
 
Ok,I got one listener with a 1' sweetspot and one with a 6' sweetspot. So what makes up your sweetspot?
tinear1
49 posts
 
I'll fess up. I still have a Carver Sonic Hollogram Generator (stand alone unit that goes in the tape loop). When engaged, the bottom end loses some definition, but the dramatically expanded (wider and deeper) sound stage is a guilty pleasure that's hard to resist.
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,970 posts
 
If I had to choose between the CSHG & a Bose Wave radio, I'd probably take the Bose. It's amazing that so many people here seem to like it. One of my biggest disappointments in gear was when I went to audition the Carver Amazing Loudspeakers. They were hooked up to the Sonic Holographic carver amp and preamp. The salesman was quite impressed with this technology and spoke of how well it sounded. To my son and I it was the worst sounding system we'd ever heard. We walked out amazed that they would even show a system which sounded so bad.
6550c
393 posts
 
Sonic Holography did work, but you had to set the speakers up just right and "sit with your head in a vice" to make it worth while. I doubt one could just hastly hook it up and flip it on and hear much improvement to the sound field. (I wonder if someone just happens to have one for sale right now? hete). It worked by cancelling out unneeded replicted sounds that collapse and flatten the sound stage. You can maybe search around and find a Bob Carver white paper or even the manual that came with the product had a nice run down on the theory. And I don't know who in the right mind would sell the pre for 20$?
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