Best Carver stereo solid state amplifier design

I bought a TFM-55 and c-16 preamp right after college. I used them with CV speakers. This was a giant step forward as I left behind a Kenwood receiver and Pioneer tape deck.

I recall the term "MID-FI" being used allot in the early 1990s, but I haven't heard it in a while. It was used on stuff that was too low cost to really be considered a contender. "MID-FI" could be used to brand gear that was better than entry level, but not S.O.T.A - but the term was really a put down too.

Do any people out there made comparisons between carver designs and big league stuff with reference material.Thanks pat.

Still have my 't' mod cube out in the garage. Debate continues on the subject of total rebuild and use as a sub amp for a DVC homebrew design.
Al might have used his with higher sensitivity speakers, but I had very good luck driving a pair of vintage Magnepan MG-1s. It was neck and neck as to which ran out of steam 1st, Maggies or cube.
This was a very impressive (to me) combination especially after I added my First Ever CD player... A Magnevox / Philips FD1001 an original 14 bit player sitting in the next room looking for a laser pickup.
The Phase Linear stuff, especially the 400 is landmark equipment.

08-28-09: Jimjoyce25
I run two second-hand Sunfire Signature 600 amps, one per channel, with Marigo Ultra 5 power cords to deal with RF issues. In this configuration they far exceed the performance of the original production Atma-Sphere MA-1 mono amplifiers they replaced in my system.

the atma-sphere were from the early 90 i guess but did the sunfire beat them in every respect.My brother just compared a carver pm 1.5 to a spectron musician 2 and found the spectron to be much more transparent and maybe a bit flatter than the carver.

By a mile. But you definitely need the power cords with them, or you won't get anywhere near the performance. Without them the RF issues with the Sunfires mean that you won't hear the detail they're capable of.

The 600s are not in production anymore, so only available second hand, and they usually sell pretty quickly. Average price is probably 1500 or so per unit. (Note that the Marigo power cords are quite expensive, so they add significantly to the cost of the amps. But you can try them for 30 days without obligation.)

btw: What do the Spectrons cost?