Bob Carver 180 Mono-blocks perform superbly

I have enjoyed the Ps vanes (12ax and 12at) both in my carvers and a vincent 236mk hybrid intergrated. They have a nice highs along with solid bass. The only others I have tried are the cheap stock tubes that came with each. I have read that Bob preferred the NOS telefuken. If I can find a good deal on some I might try a pair. Since my last post i tested my 88's using the sixth slot according to the owners manual and had a them test between 20 and 40. I then matched them up so each amp had the same added up number for all six and the bias was still low(110) vs the good amp(140). I must have something wrong with the one. I am going to try and contact emotiva and see what their tech says.

I looked at the upscale audio site and he tests the tube for 72 hours, none of the other sites do that. It's probably worth the extra couple of bucks for the peace of mind.

Heard somewhere that Emotiva and Bob have parted ways recently. I am not sure how true this info is, but just thought I would pass it on in the event you run into complications getting results with your inquiry.

Man! I need Bob's New 900watt Silver Seven. I run out of power (I think) with the Cherry 180's, when I "Live Concert" them lol. I guess I'm running out of power, the meter pegs violently, no real audible distortion though, but I assume hard pegging is an indication that you're almost at the end of the power available. Thinking of doing the Sunfire Signature again to get the 6 db of headroom back for my tendency to reproduce "Live" :-O

Talked to emotiva and they are honoring the carver warranty. The tech that I talked to did say that the bias will have different high and lows depending on the tubes along with the fact that carver didn't match the mono blocks when the were shipped. He recommended testing all the tubes and putting all the strongest in the weaker amp. According to him the normal listening should be done between 80 and 110 and that just because you can bias them up to 140 or 150 it is not recommended to drive the tubes that hard.

The only time that I had the meters bouncing was when I had a pair of Polk bookshelves hooked the the carvers and I was running them pretty hard. They would bounce all the way down to 10 and back up, the looked like some VU meters. When hooked to my gallo speakers,the needle barely moves, strange.

I can't imagine anybody at anotivia knows how to solder let alone diagnose a problem.