Carver fans! Are Carver preamps any good?

G

Guest101

Super Member
Just wondering?

There are so many versions of Carver preamps and preamp/tuners for sale. (I'm guessing their power amps might be OK) And they always seem to sell. Are they really any good?...or are they just a popular product with so-so sound, and similar to the likes of Rotel and NAD?

Seems like their products change hands regularly. So, what are there better products, if any?

This has always intrigued me because they seem to have a big following.
 
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Carver gear is kind of like Bose, it sells on name alone....

Speaking as someone who had tons of Carver gear over the years the stuff is OK, but just....there's much better sounding and constructed gear out there for the same price range....I still have a couple of their amps out in the garage that went tits up and a TFM-15CB over at my Father's house that I use when I'm over there taking care of him....it's hooked up to a Rotel preamp that sounds better than anything I had from Carver, and a pair of Dynaco A40-XL's....

FWIW, I had the C4000 and C11, plus a CT-17 and CT-7...all have been sold off or given away, just not that good sounding vs. other things I have tried...

But, if it floats your boat then go for it....
 
I like the carver amps, particularly the M series such as the M1.0t. The tfm amps are nothing too special IMHO

Preamp wise, you can do better. My dad has had a few carver preamps and when he replaced his main carver preamp with an anthem TLP-1 it was a very large difference in sound.

Evan
 
Hi, I have a C4000 pre amp that I will probably never part with. I have had it gone over by an authorized carver tech here locally and it sounds very neutral. It has all of the bells and whistles that I will ever need and then some. I agree that not all Carver is great, but I would recommend the C4000 to anyone wanting a very good pre amp. Assuming it's up to spec.
 
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I have a CT-17 that's been out of rotation for over 4 years now. The sound was kind of boring, flat, lifeless, and uninvolving with restricted dynamics. Plus, some of the functions were starting to get quirky, especially in the tuner section.
 
C-16 Preamp here which was their TOTL in '90. Very neutral sounding. Has a few bells and whistles such as "Sonic Holography" which I never use. Accepts all types of phono cartridges - very versatile!
 
The C19 is the one to watch out for - Carver was one of the few who tried to bring a tube preamp to the masses in the 90's. It's a hidden sonic gem among some rather generic sounding mid-fi gear. I had a C1 for a few years and thought it was well worth the $100 I paid (used). But it was a bit too clinical/sterile/dry sounding so I got rid of it.

I still listen to a pair of TFM-6CB amps in my studio/office every day, and they both still work. One is getting a little slow to engage the relay on power-on, but otherwise they are working well for 19 year old units.

I would not use Carver and Bose in the same sentence. Bob's gear has some merit and most of it was well made....

jblnut
 
I use both the C-1 and C-19 in seperate rigs. These are the two best Carver made IMO. The C-1 is very neutral and has an excellent phono board. The C-19 I would put up against any pre I've heard except for a Joule Electra that cost five time as much. The guy I bought it from sold it to me to get a Sunfire classic tube pre. He told me afterward that he wished he never sold the C-19. To each his own, but I really like both, and will never part with the C-19.
 
As the owner of a Sunfire Classic Tube pre, I can tell you that this preamp is truly exceptional. If other Carver preamps are similar, then I think you will be very happy with one. :yes:
 
I happen to like carver gear and would not shy away from purchasing more if the price was right.
but after using my present preamp (Mitsubishi DA-P10 ) I think I like the neutral minimalist design and sound of this preamp much better than the Carver preamps I have owned.

I would like to get a Sunfire theater grand power amplifier :D
 
turbomustang said:
I happen to like carver gear and would not shy away from purchasing more if the price was right.
but after using my present preamp (Mitsubishi DA-P10 ) I think I like the neutral minimalist design and sound of this preamp much better than the Carver preamps I have owned.

I would like to get a Sunfire theater grand power amplifier :D
Click to expand...

YEAH, baby!

I've pounded the H*LL out of my Carver AL-IIIs in bi-amped configuration with a Sunfire 400x7 for almost 3 years now with nary a hiccup.

I even used it during CF '07 to put a pretty good hurtin' on not ONE, not TWO, but THREE sets of Carver Amazings simultaneously all driven off two channels (one right, one left). What ohm load do you think THIS presented in parallel??

P1010184.JPG


I'm not sure how much more punishment you could GIVE an amp; what a testament to bulletproof design~

The best part? It didn't even get WARM~


*edit*--I just realized what an ugly-@$$ wiring job we did there.... :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
I'll agree that the Sunfire gear from Bob was a world better sounding than 90% of the "Carver" branded gear that I have had or have heard...

So, if you have the opportunity to pick up anything from the Bob Carver days of Sunfire then you should.

The only other one to look out for would be the C-19, as stated before, as it was an OK tube preamp, much better sounding, in my opinion, than the C-4000 I had, or any of the CT- series of tuner/preamps...

You can usually find Adcom preamps in the same price range as most of the Carver ones, and if I had a choice, I would take a GFP-565 over anything but the C-19, and in my case, I did just that...replaced the C-4000 with the 565...I soon after sold the 4000...the 4000 was neat for it's Autocorrelator and Peak Unlimiter, which could help with noise from the source and improve the dynamics respectively.

The Sonic Holography was kind of gimmicky, but there were times when it was fun...the rear speaker hookup could add ambiance to certain recordings and TV programs, but was kind of useless in my small den...

But, the pure audio quality of the Carver was not in the same league as the GFP-565, the Onkyo Grand Integra P-308, Pioneer Elite C-90, or PS Audio 4.6, all of which I tried in direct head to head competition with the Carver...it bummed me a bit as I really wanted the Carver to win...and, I still have all those preamps except for the C-90 and of course the C-4000....

Oh well, as always YMMV....
 
mjcmt said:
Are they really any good?...or are they just a popular product with so-so sound, and similar to the likes of Rotel and NAD?
Click to expand...

Heh, I have 3 systems around the house that get regular use. One is Carver based, one NAD, and one Rotel. Guess I'm just a so-so guy. I like them all.
 
I picked up two M-1.0t amps for about $120 each from the "repaired for resale" section of a military exchange in Germany about 20 years ago. Their specs looked great but they seemed awfully thin sounding at the time. Nevertheless, I held on to them. I ran them through JBL 4312a, CV HED U-123, EV cornerhorns, and others and never liked the sound.

Until......I was experimenting with some inefficient car stereo Kicker woofers. Actively crossed-over some old Freeair 12"s with some Altec 908 drivers - using each channel of one carver amp. Cranked that puppy up and was really surprised. The carver had bass.

The secret seemed to be to allow the carver to push some power. The speakers I used until then were all pretty efficient and didn't allow the amp to open up.

Sine then, found a set of Allison 5s and they're just awesome sounding, with very low bass extension using those carvers.

Very glad I held on to them especially given the price. The pair are great when bridged for some whopping power on inefficient speakers.

Edit...ooops, just noticed you were asking about preamps...
 
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I had a Carver C-1. It was very noisy. Had a slight hiss and hum. Switches popped and made noise. The Sonic Holography to me was a chuckle. I gave it to a friend that uses it in his shop. It is good for that. Plus the faceplate color and the letter colors almost matched. I had to use a flashlight to see what was what.
 
I thought this thread was for carver FANS ;-)

I was unimpressed, with the preamp and the "Sonic Holography," and ready to unload my CT-24... until I tried the "Holography" on the Blind Melon album. It came to life like I've never heard it before!

Now I've checked it out a bit more, and the feature helps some albums a little, makes some sound kind of distorted, and occasionally makes a recording absolutely shine.

To each their own, I like my Sansui 2000X receiver all by it's lonesome for the most part, but I'm keeping this preamp because the sonic holography OCCASIONALLY has outstanding results. YMMV.
 
Well I am a Huge Fan of Carver Amps! That being said the Preamps are all so-so with the Exception of the previously mentioned C-19. However you can do Much better for a preamp by going to Sunfire or a Passive preamp with a seperate phono stage. There are a lot of Good Preamps out there that are better than the Carver Pre`s. But Amp wise...well the M1.0t and the M500t as well as the Sunfire amps are Very Good. The Sunfire Preamps are Very Good as well. I have the Last of Bob`s line of creations with the Lightstars and LOVE them, but there are no more to be had and only 100 were ever made.
 
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