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Carver M1.0t Most Underrated Amp?

alectrevelya

alectrevelya

Member
This amp is a real sleeper. Anything from audio legend Bob Carver grabs my attention, and this amp is no exception! Very musical and loads of clean power.

I just finished listening to Jon and Vangelis' masterpiece from 1983, their Private Collection album. Even through my cheap Audiosphere Acoustic Profiles PSL 8.4 speakers, the sound is exquisite and lush.

My dad ran dual mono M400 Carver cubes back when I was living at home and had them powering Series I Bose 901's. I've been hooked on Carver gear ever since.20171217_135352.jpg 15135372786781446288077.jpg 1513537315774125842314.jpg 1513537419621723724334.jpg
 
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awillia6 said:
Ah, the great Stereophile/Conrad-Johnson Premier Five killer. Great story even if not the greatest amp (I've read of some basic design flaws in, yup, the unit's thermal management). Quite the iconoclast, Bob.
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Yes, there are no doubt better amps out there. I've heard of thermal management failures in these also, but they can easily be fixed, but not by a dimwit like me, lol. I feel like these are excellent amps for their price point.
 
alectrevelya said:
Yes, there are no doubt better amps out there. I've heard of thermal management failures in these also, but they can easily be fixed, but not by a dimwit like me, lol. I feel like these are excellent amps for their price point.
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One of my buddies swears by these amps (especially Bob's ML killer, the 1.5t). He's an accomplished tech and has gone in to do what Bob overlooked in the original design. It's not a huge mod and is apparently well-known in Carver circles . You might want to look into getting someone competent to do it for you if you want to run the amp on a continuing (or continual) basis. BTW, I agree with you that these downconverters are amazing pieces of design, engineering, and sources of audio bliss. I'm envious.
 
I had one that wasn't bad, but had a pretty good thump. I still have a page from a Carver bulletin on fixing it, someone "borrowed" the amp before I could try the fix.
 
I was a fan of Bob's work back in the 80s, so much so that I became a dealer in '87 for a few years. I owned a few home audio products from Carver; first on the list was an M400a cube amp exchanged for an M400t soon after. Next was an C-4000 pre amp and an DTL-100 cd player. One item I wished I had the money for when I was a dealer was the $17,500 Silver Seven tube amps, as a dealer my cost would of been around 8k. Alas, kids, mortgage, wife...:blah:.

Fast forward to today and now my kid has the Carver bug. Both him and I have M1.5t amps, both have been recapped, his with nichicon muse and mine with elna silmics. Filter and Power supply caps have been replaced with modern design getting rid of the capacitor technologies filter caps and installed Cornell Dubilier power caps. Needless to say I've heard my kid's 1.5 pushing the sh!% out of a pair of Polk 3.1tl's and it was a freakin rock concert in his driveway with the house windows open. :rockon:
The running joke between the two of us is; if the lights aren't flickering in the neighbors house, it ain't loud enough.

On the more listenable level we found the stock C-1 as well as the C-4000 pre amps were okay but once we rolled an Audio Research LS3 pre in it's place the difference was night and day. Bob's amp designs were great for their price point but the pre amps weren't near as sonically good as others without modifications.

I run my M1.5t for L & R mains and a bridged M1.0t for the subwoof in my shop. In my opinion you get a bunch of bang for your buck with Carver amps but all of the original stock M class stuff is overdue for caps, they may work but are ticking time bombs.

Enjoy your toy!
 
a_retent said:
I was a fan of Bob's work back in the 80s, so much so that I became a dealer in '87 for a few years. I owned a few home audio products from Carver; first on the list was an M400a cube amp exchanged for an M400t soon after. Next was an C-4000 pre amp and an DTL-100 cd player. One item I wished I had the money for when I was a dealer was the $17,500 Silver Seven tube amps, as a dealer my cost would of been around 8k. Alas, kids, mortgage, wife...:blah:.

Fast forward to today and now my kid has the Carver bug. Both him and I have M1.5t amps, both have been recapped, his with nichicon muse and mine with elna silmics. Filter and Power supply caps have been replaced with modern design getting rid of the capacitor technologies filter caps and installed Cornell Dubilier power caps. Needless to say I've heard my kid's 1.5 pushing the sh!% out of a pair of Polk 3.1tl's and it was a freakin rock concert in his driveway with the house windows open. :rockon:
The running joke between the two of us is; if the lights aren't flickering in the neighbors house, it ain't loud enough.

On the more listenable level we found the stock C-1 as well as the C-4000 pre amps were okay but once we rolled an Audio Research LS3 pre in it's place the difference was night and day. Bob's amp designs were great for their price point but the pre amps weren't near as sonically good as others without modifications.

I run my M1.5t for L & R mains and a bridged M1.0t for the subwoof in my shop. In my opinion you get a bunch of bang for your buck with Carver amps but all of the original stock M class stuff is overdue for caps, they may work but are ticking time bombs.

Enjoy your toy!
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I am interested in possibly getting the MK II upgrade for the M1.0t and getting the caps replaced. I got this one off ebay and have no idea if any work has been done to it. It sure sounded great today! I'm in Ontario Canada and have no idea if there is a repair shop that deals with Carver gear.
 
alectrevelya said:
I am interested in possibly getting the MK II upgrade for the M1.0t and getting the caps replaced. I got this one off ebay and have no idea if any work has been done to it. It sure sounded great today! I'm in Ontario Canada and have no idea if there is a repair shop that deals with Carver gear.
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I wouldn't be able to tell you if there is a repair place near you but there are two sellers on ebay offering upgrades for Carver amps, and the most conclusive upgrade kit for the 1.0t is the mkII opt.2. I believe one if not both sellars used to work at Carver and they would be circuitsandconcepts and russkall (no affil). Both offer quality upgrades for the 1.0 and 1.5 models and are quite simple to install. The do-it-yourself mkII opt2 upgrade kit is a bit more complex to install but fixes all of the known issuses with 1.0t however it runs over $200 usd but could potentially push your 1.0t into the 750wrms x 2 neighborhood. If that's understandably outside your budget I would recommend at least buying the power supply upgrade and the capacitor upgrade kit for significantly less money, these two kits really only require a soldering iron and a quality multimeter to check power supply voltage output and adjust the bias.
 
a_retent said:
I was a fan of Bob's work back in the 80s, so much so that I became a dealer in '87 for a few years. I owned a few home audio products from Carver; first on the list was an M400a cube amp exchanged for an M400t soon after. Next was an C-4000 pre amp and an DTL-100 cd player. One item I wished I had the money for when I was a dealer was the $17,500 Silver Seven tube amps, as a dealer my cost would of been around 8k. Alas, kids, mortgage, wife...:blah:.

Fast forward to today and now my kid has the Carver bug. Both him and I have M1.5t amps, both have been recapped, his with nichicon muse and mine with elna silmics. Filter and Power supply caps have been replaced with modern design getting rid of the capacitor technologies filter caps and installed Cornell Dubilier power caps. Needless to say I've heard my kid's 1.5 pushing the sh!% out of a pair of Polk 3.1tl's and it was a freakin rock concert in his driveway with the house windows open. :rockon:
The running joke between the two of us is; if the lights aren't flickering in the neighbors house, it ain't loud enough.

On the more listenable level we found the stock C-1 as well as the C-4000 pre amps were okay but once we rolled an Audio Research LS3 pre in it's place the difference was night and day. Bob's amp designs were great for their price point but the pre amps weren't near as sonically good as others without modifications.

I run my M1.5t for L & R mains and a bridged M1.0t for the subwoof in my shop. In my opinion you get a bunch of bang for your buck with Carver amps but all of the original stock M class stuff is overdue for caps, they may work but are ticking time bombs.

Enjoy your toy!
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The C-16 and it's tubed sibling the C-19 might change your mind about Bob's preamps.
 
Grenadeslio said:
The C-16 and it's tubed sibling the C-19 might change your mind about Bob's preamps.
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Perhaps, but when I see prices for the C-19 on the used market at 1k or more I can't get too interested, nor can I believe they can compete with the likes of used Audio Reseach, McIntosh or others. My 1st C-4000 pre run me over 1k new back in '83 and it wasn't that stellar but certainly had a cool look about it. I would have reason to believe by the time the C-16 and 19 were put into production that some of the quality issues with the Carver pre's may have been adressed but given the choice between spending over 1k for a used Carver (out of business) pre or over 1k for an used Audio Research (still in business) pre I'll go with ARC every time, but if I get the chance to hear one...I ain't turning it down. :thumbsup:
 
a_retent said:
Perhaps, but when I see prices for the C-19 on the used market at 1k or more I can't get too interested, nor can I believe they can compete with the likes of used Audio Reseach, McIntosh or others. My 1st C-4000 pre run me over 1k new back in '83 and it wasn't that stellar but certainly had a cool look about it. I would have reason to believe by the time the C-16 and 19 were put into production that some of the quality issues with the Carver pre's may have been adressed but given the choice between spending over 1k for a used Carver (out of business) pre or over 1k for an used Audio Research (still in business) pre I'll go with ARC every time, but if I get the chance to hear one...I ain't turning it down. :thumbsup:
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Had Macs, great stuff, but definitely more expensive even used, you get what you pay for. That said, the C-16 not being the tubed version is the red headed step child so not held in the same regard (read price) as the C-19. Originally selling for close to a grand, used usually command upwards of $600 but if patient can be had for closer to $300. Definitely Bob's best pre, it's really something special.
 
Grenadeslio said:
Had Macs, great stuff, but definitely more expensive even used, you get what you pay for. That said, the C-16 not being the tubed version is the red headed step child so not held in the same regard (read price) as the C-19. Originally selling for close to a grand, used usually command upwards of $600 but if patient can be had for closer to $300. Definitely Bob's best pre, it's really something special.
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Don't get me wrong, as with any manufacturer they all have their less than desirable models, their sleepers and the over hyped. I'll take you for your word on the C-16 as I've never had the opportunity to audition one and like previously stated, given the chance to audition one I'll do so, or a C-6. As far as "Bob's best pre" I can't concure with that statement as he designed some pretty stellar stuff under the Lightstar and Sunfire names. My only contention is with the C-1 and C-4000/4000t of which I own all three.
I really like the board layout in the C-4000/4000t as it's much like a computer would be laid out with it's peripherals. And the C-1s main board has easy enough access to everything, I'm just not impressed with the stock sound and I find a lot of the parts used in these two units aren't the greatest quality especially what I paid for my 1st C-4000 new. Quite honestly I didn't find a significant improvement in sound between the C-4000 and 4000t just more gadgets to play with i.e. digital time lens and more selectivity for the sonic hologram. Even comparing an under $200 unmodded Cambridge Audio phono stage to the phono stage in the 4000t the CA sounded better even running through the 4000t.At some point I intend to do the BillD mod on my C-1 which from what I've read provides an overall significant improvement in sound quality from stock.
Currently I have 3 complete 2 channel systems in my house and several unused pieces laying around so I'm personally not looking but if I were I wouldn't rule out the C-16, but given the current market price for the C-19 I would pass in favor of another manufacturer. And for the 600-700 price range you can pick up a nice ARC LS3 which was hand assembled, not mass produced and greater quality control. Not to mentioned is still serviced and able to be brought back to original factory specs by Audio Research.

However, we digress as this thread wasn't about Carver preamps but rather about Carver's underrated amps, of which were several to include some from his Phase Linear days such as the model 700 at 350wrms x2. For its time was serious horsepower. The M500t was another good offering as well as the 1.5t and my fav the 4.0t (still want one of those). Even to this day Carver's amps still amaze people by their size to output capability, the fact they run cooler to the touch under load and idle current draw is unbelievably low. If I was in the market for something with a little horsepower and reasonably priced I'd certainly add Carver to the concideration list keeping in mind how old they are and the fact it's a good chance they'll need to be recapped.
 
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Old Stereo
I recently dug out my old stereo from the 80's to use in my workshop and thought maybe I'd get a second power amp for the extra oomph (headroom etc...) and stumbled on this thread. After reading this, and other links, I'm thinking one M1.0t is probably all the power my speakers (Speakerlab Super 7's) or tired, old ears will need. So instead I think I'll just care for what I've got. Any suggestions on where to get it serviced/rebuilt (mods, new caps, clean the pot's, etc)?
 
I never had the M1.0 but I have had several M1.5T's and they are great amps. Just have to watch for an annoying buzz that develops with some due to the mag coil

We used a pair of Carver cubes back in the day to run our PA when the Crown DC300s blew up
 
I had my 1.0 rebuilt at Hitech Audio in Stevenson, Wa. When I matched it with a B&K pre i could not believe how clear and detailed it was. Anything over 20 years old will benefit tremendously with new modern caps, resistors and tranny's
 
a_retent said:
I wouldn't be able to tell you if there is a repair place near you but there are two sellers on ebay offering upgrades for Carver amps, and the most conclusive upgrade kit for the 1.0t is the mkII opt.2. I believe one if not both sellars used to work at Carver and they would be circuitsandconcepts and russkall (no affil). Both offer quality upgrades for the 1.0 and 1.5 models and are quite simple to install. The do-it-yourself mkII opt2 upgrade kit is a bit more complex to install but fixes all of the known issuses with 1.0t however it runs over $200 usd but could potentially push your 1.0t into the 750wrms x 2 neighborhood. If that's understandably outside your budget I would recommend at least buying the power supply upgrade and the capacitor upgrade kit for significantly less money, these two kits really only require a soldering iron and a quality multimeter to check power supply voltage output and adjust the bias.
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I know this is a fairly dead topic. However,I must say I'm glad I found this topic. I been looking for, but keep forgetting to do this, repair upgrade. I've got my M-0.5t The M-1.0t and not sure if available, but an A400X and an AV806x. Love if all had an opt2. feature.
+1 for the reminder! Kudos
Kreech
 
I love my carver gear and just had ruskall go through my C1 preamp and TFM-35 amp he did mods it and overall rebuild op amp update, led lights ect.... Sounds spectacular.
 
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