any Carver C1 ownwers out there, prowd new owner with a question..

VINTAGCHRIS

VINTAGCHRIS

Super Member
Let me start by saying wow what a great sounding pre amp!

I have never owned piece of Carver equipment until my recent purchase of a C2 a few weeks back for a ridiculously low price, i didn't realize when i bought it that it was set up for 220v and with the help of some great Audiokarma members here i converted it to 120v and after converting it, it turned out to be one of my favorite sounding pre amps i have.

While googling info on it i came across info on the C1 and the holographic feature and thought to myself now that sounds pretty cool and thought to myself if ever came across one for a reasonable price would snag it.

Well wouldn't you know it a few days after finding my C2 a C1 came up for sale locally, listed as a mint one owner with the original manual and test CD, this one wasn't a steal of a price but i feel it was fairly priced for its as stated mint condition.

I totally love the sound of this unit and the holographic feature is just jaw dropping on certain recordings, throwing an unbelievably detailed sound stage where at times i can close my eyes and actually follow singer guitar player etc as they move about, and the one that really tripped me out was not only hearing but seeing in my minds eye the drummer playing from one side of his drum kit to the other if that makes sense, very cool!

My question is when the holographic feature is turned off and the volume is turned all the way down like my C2 there is no audible hiss coming through my speakers, but when i turn the holographic feature on i get a noticeable hiss, the manual mentioned the possibility of this but didn't indicate it would only be with the holographic feature and suggested turning the gain on the amp down and this does help with it, but i just wondered why i only notice it when using the holographic feature?

Is this normal or is something amiss? oh and by the way the low volume hiss is not overly loud and only audible when the volume is all the way down, the sound in holographic mode is very clean and clear sounding with no noticeable distortion that i can detect.
 
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I've got a C9 and it does the same thing. Not noticeable with a lower power amp, but a couple hundred watts per channel on idle, and you'll definitely notice it.

I did some digging, and apparently that's inherent in the design. Even the new ones do it. It's basically a feedback loop in the holo circuit that causes the hiss when there's no signal to process. From what I understand, it goes away once the circuit triggers and won't affect the output.

Sounds like you're happy with what you're hearing. Did ya read the book? Didja? Didja? There's some really specific tweaks you need to do to your listening environment to get the most out of the system. I definitely noticed a difference when I first plugged it in and hit the go button, but having the speakers set up properly ... wOw ...

Enjoy!
 
Congrats on the preamp; it's wonderful.

One of our members (BillD) has a mod for the C-1 that takes it up quite a few notches.

There are mods for the sonic holography circuit also. The main reason for the higher noise floor (assuming your preamp sensitivity isn't too high for your amp) is that the difference channel functions as a comb filter; at high frequencies there is a boost with no signal.

One of the SH mods addresses this.
 
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thanks skizo!

That makes sense i did notice it was barely audible on my 150 watt JBL uhrie 6260 amp when compared to my 200 watt Sherwood 7040 mosfet amp i had it hooked to, after starting this thread last night i switched in my JBL amp to see if there would be a difference thinking maybe there was some kind electronic clashing or miss match going on.

yes i hate to admit it as you know the ole saying goes "real man don't need no stinking directions!" but i did read the manual front to back and as suggested moved my speakers closer together and did the string trick to properly angle the speakers, the CD was pretty helpful and useful as well.

I am extremely happy with the sound quality and find it very much to my taste sound wise and find the holographic feature just seems to make the music come alive, this addition has taken my system to another level and i couldn't be happier.
 
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Rich thanks for the carver site info i just registered to become a member and read the thread on Bills mods to the C1, this sounds like something i will be looking into having done in the future.
 
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congrats Emmbee! hope yours finds it way to you in good shape and looking forward to reading about your impressions of this pre amp.
 
Ive had my C-1 since 1981 and love it. I still have it but now Im using a 4000T. I think I like the C-1 better though. I dont care much for the sonic holography. Too much to set up correctly with the lascalas
 
Edrizi i would love to hear a good pair of klipsch speakers sometime, my main speakers are a line array column design with horn tweeters and it really surprised me how much improvement it made on mine, mine being columns though i was able to easily position the upper frequency columns closer together approximately five feet apart, i found it really cool that although they were closer together it significantly widened the sound stage taking it all the way to the side walls and completely made the speakers disappear, the end wall my stereo is on is roughly 22 feet wide.

What i am anxiously waiting to try next is bringing my Dahlquist DQ 10s down from my bedroom rig and trying them out on this setup, with their time array design they image like crazy to begin with but kinda got lost in the large space i have to work with and were moved to a smaller room for better acoustics, i am curious as to how they will sound with the C1 opening up and widening the sound stage, the problem is the wife worked a twelve hr shift at the hospital last night and will be sleeping for most of the day, but you can bet your ass when she wakes up... its ON!
 
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VINTAGCHRIS said:
Rich thanks for the carver site info i just registered to become a member and read the thread on Bills mods to the C1, this sounds like something i will be looking into having done in the future.
Click to expand...

If you're handy with a soldering Iron, BillD has a full parts list in the topic. I've also included a parts list for the Sonic Holography mods, and will, sometime permiting, post a parts list for the C-9 standalone hologram generator
 
Thanks Rich i am really liking how it sounds now i am going to listen to it for awhile before i tear into it but i do really feel this will be my mainstay pre amp, but at some point i am sure i will want to do the mods to take it to the next level.

On another note i am just now drafting the man child into helping me move some stuff around and we are bringing the DQ10s down this evening and trying them out with this pre amp, i cant wait this should be very interesting.
 
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