I moved out to SW Washington state in 1988 and Carver had a local dealer in the Portland area. I spent most of my first years salary on the C4000, M1,5t a TX11 tuner and the DTL200 CD player. I was a happy camper - I even made the pilgrimage to Lynnwood just to get a picture in front of the factory. No idea what ever happened to those pictures ... sure would be nice to reminisce. I was way to shy to actually go in and ask to meet the man - sure wish I would have. This was the short stint when I got out of vinyl (88-93) and my CD collection grew and grew. Man, that system had punch and great dynamics. Something about the look and feel I always really loved. And what a great era of music ... Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush. The amps are what really did it for me ... and there were tons of used models out here. When I saw my pair come up for sale local (2003) I snached them up. After a few years, I got on the Carver forum and started reading up on the 500t. I decided to get them modded by Richard on the Carversite forum but he was so busy, I could never seem to secure a place in line. I think he had so much demand, he just couldn't keep up. My research lead me to Roland in Portland. He did a very similar mod to the MKII. He was pretty fast ... a few weeks and I had the amps back.
I gave them the Altec 14 test and they have been mated up ever since.
If you have the MKII's, they are as good as it gets ... I like your clean setup. I am considering a clearing house on my HT system and setting the M500t's up similar to what you have. They need to be show pieces ! Who knows ... maybe I'll make it to Carverfest and meet the maker.
Cheers
That's an awesome story! I got hooked on Carver equipment at the ripe ole' age of 11!
Back in 1983-1985, my oldest brother was stationed over in Germany in the Army. He first bought a Technics integrated amp at the local PX hoping it would have been like our father's SU-8099. It wasn't. Plastic knobs, things didn't line up right, switches were light and cheap feeling, and even at idle, the thing ran hot enough to fry eggs. Plus it didn't have enough oomph to really power his JBL L-112's. At this time, he also had a Denon DP-62L turntable, two Nakamichi decks, the BX-125 and DRAGON, as well as a Harmon/Kardon CD-491.
Shortly after, he took the Technics integrated back and in return bought a Carver C1 pre, a TX-11 tuner, a DTL-100 cd player, and the little M-400t cube amp. He shipped all of that gear state-side when he got moved to TX for his last year in the military. After that in 1986, he came home with all of that gear, along with a bunch of brochures of a bunch of brands of stereo equipment including Nakamichi, Carver, H/K, Mitsubishi, Luxman, JBL, Klipsch, etc, etc, etc... In other words, years worth of reading material for his baby brother... Me!
Naturally, I was more interested in the brochures of the gear that he owned, so I was constantly looking at the Carver, Nak, H/K and JBL brochures. Of course, I was totally amazed at that little 9" square cube that put out 201 watts per channel and dimmed the lights like crazy every time the bass came in. Looking through the Carver brochures, I loved all of the gear I was looking at but those M-500t amps really caught my eye with those big meters. I didn't even realize at the time that this was one of the most highly regarded Carver amps of all time until just recently, about a year ago. I always told myself and my brother that I would one day replicate his system, and that I always wanted one of those M-500t amps.
Well, I kind of replicated his system. I have the C1 preamp (BillD modded), a stock TX-11a, and not one, but two M-500t amps. I was originally going for a couple of M-400t amps until I learned about the difficulty of repairing them, and the simple fact that the 500t's are actually the better amp. So there you have it... My story of becoming a fan of Carver equipment.
His system left an ever-lasting impression on me. That system made me fall in love and appreciate Carver equipment as well as fall in love with Genesis and Phil Collins' music. The very first record he played once he got his system set up was "Mama" by Genesis. Now keep in mind, I grew up with my father's Technics SU-8099 and Klipsch Cornwall II's, capable of getting very loud, but he never ever played his system loud. I don't think that Technics ever produced more than a single watt per channel the entire time dad had that system. My brother on the other hand willingly threw all 201 watts from that little M-400t into those JBL L-112's all the time, and it was the first time I heard a system that loud, especially in my own home! With "Mama" spinning on the Denon, those little red LED's started hopping on the amp. As the song progressed, so did the height of those LED's, and so did the height of my heartbeat. The lights in the room dimmed a little when that first bass note came in strong. Then a minute later or so, the drums came in LOUD and STRONG, those LED's started hopping all the way to the top of the meter, the lights in the room dimming really bad, and nothing but pure sonic bliss punching right through my entire body! I was standing there giggling it was so awesome, and my brother was standing there next to me with a huge grin on his face, enjoying watching my excitement while I listened in "aww" at his system.
From that very point on, I have been in love with stereo equipment and audio in general, in love with Carver and JBL equipment, and in love with Genesis and Phil Collins! That was 31 years ago! In that amount of time till now, I have probably gone through more stereo equipment than all three of my brothers and my father combined, have definitely had much larger and louder systems than any of them, and have definitely spend more $$$ on them at this point! What can I say, I'm a crazy nut! LOL