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Carver PM-350.

CoryS06

CoryS06

Active Member
Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum. Been wanting to get a Power Amp that was really good and I think I just found one. I just purchased a Carver PM 350 online and I was wanting to know if any of you have had any experience with this amp or any other Carver products. Thanks for any feedback that you can provide.
 
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CoryS06 said:
Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum. Been wanting to get a Power Amp that was really good and I think I just found one. I just purchased a Carver PM 350 online and I was wanting to know if any of you have had any experience with this amp or any other Carver products. Thanks for any feedback that you can provide.
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I can't say that I have any experience with the 350 but I do have a c-2 preamp, m-200t power amp and a phase linear 300. Overall I don't mind the carver sound. I do find them to be a bit more prone to higher frequencies though. I'd definitely recommend using/finding speakers that have a tendency to be a little bass happy to even this out.
If I'm not mistaken I believe the 350 has balanced inputs only. What preamp are you planning on using?
 
At the moment I don't have a pre-amp but I would love to get either a C1 or C2. I'm open to anything that I can get for around $150 or less. The speakers I am running this system on are a pair of used Infinity Primus 250. my great uncle gave them to me over the summer and I'm just now getting good use out of them.
 
the carver pm series are nice sounding amps. i have a carver pm600 i like a lot. good clean sound. and probably the quietest pro amp i ever used. has very good s/n.
 
That's great to hear. I think I got a really great deal for my money. my only real concern is that since the THD is .5% will that be an issue for me? I've been told it shouldn't
 
I have been using a PM_350 for 10 years and would rate it about a 3 stars for home use.
I withheld the last star because the noise is depending on your music choices and volume levels as Carver PM's sing with the music.
At normal low volume fan is steady background and disappears, but when rocking fan syncs with power peaks.
Nice thing about it being a balanced rig is, being able to make a long cable run with minimal loss. I ran mine away to cabinet and dampened it. Now its completely gone, we are talking about a tank here. Forget the ThD .5 is better than fine and the POWER to run anything anytime all the time and why they are so cheap I can't get it. mark it a score and don't tell everybody lol.
 
chazvintage said:
I have been using a PM_350 for 10 years and would rate it about a 3 stars for home use.
I withheld the last star because the noise is depending on your music choices and volume levels as Carver PM's sing with the music.
At normal low volume fan is steady background and disappears, but when rocking fan syncs with power peaks.
Nice thing about it being a balanced rig is, being able to make a long cable run with minimal loss. I ran mine away to cabinet and dampened it. Now its completely gone, we are talking about a tank here. Forget the ThD .5 is better than fine and the POWER to run anything anytime all the time and why they are so cheap I can't get it. mark it a score and don't tell everybody lol.
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Thanks!!! I'm so excited to get these finally and hook them up to what I already have speaker wise (Infinity Primus 250) and see how great it will be. A good friend loaned me his Yamaha Pre-Amp that he had to test it out on so hopefully I get the results that I'm looking for. Also looking into rebuilding my fathers 30 year old LS-88 speakers and have them be powered by the 350. Do you leave yours on? I was told that leaving an amp as powerful as this one will result in a spike in your electric bill and that whenever I'm not using it, to turn it off.
 
CoryS06 said:
I was told that leaving an amp as powerful as this one will result in a spike in your electric bill and that whenever I'm not using it, to turn it off.
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Carver amps (SS) are generally very efficient, and they only demand a lot of power when under demand (cranked)--so nothing more than leaving a light on in your kitchen or bathroom when not "in use".
 
CoryS06 said:
ok well that helps me out a lot thanks. Have you owned or currently own a carver product?
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Over the years I have owned many Carver products from all of the home, professional, and tube series. I have met "the man" and he is a "hoot" to talk to. I currently have two of his recent tube monoblocs.
 
Carver is a funny thing when it comes to power on and such. I use a mt1.5 for daily use and it's a no power switch always on, The pm I turn off because there is no low thermal cutoff and its always fanning.
As far as electric usage you won't see any diff in your bill although I may be weird but I like to keep the amp on its own circuit , no shared plugs and such, because it can draw when it needs it. I would like to reiterate one more time this is a pro amp and when swung by the power cable it becomes a handy stage smasher and then tie it on the bumper and drag it home then hook it up and enjoy the music, so with regular filter cleaning and yearly compressed air blow out under the hood , this can stay on till the cows come home.
 
chazvintage said:
I would like to reiterate one more time this is a pro amp and when swung by the power cable it becomes a handy stage smasher and then tie it on the bumper and drag it home then hook it up and enjoy the music, so with regular filter cleaning and yearly compressed air blow out under the hood , this can stay on till the cows come home.
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I used to have a pair of PT-2400's and a few of the Carver/Clair Bros. specially modified PM-2.0's and they had been used for hard road use--you would swear that they went through the exact scenario you describe--"looked like they fell out of the truck/van at 65 mph", but NEVER failed. At least with the PT-2400's, each amp had two power cords to drag them with (they are kind of heavy) ;)

The only "weakness" with the Carver pro amps (like any other amp) is age (especially if they have seen hard road use)--they can do with a PS recap and upgrading the triac to a higher value, but that is about it.
 
Glad to hear so many positive things about my purchase. I was looking to get something more name brand but as I looked around more and more and found that the products from the Carver line were very fantastic, I decided to pull the trigger on this one. I'll leave updates on how it works for me
 
So I got it in finally today. Here she is along with my friends Yamaha pre amp
 

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hiFi DAD said:
I can't say that I have any experience with the 350 but I do have a c-2 preamp, m-200t power amp and a phase linear 300. Overall I don't mind the carver sound. I do find them to be a bit more prone to higher frequencies though. I'd definitely recommend using/finding speakers that have a tendency to be a little bass happy to even this out.
If I'm not mistaken I believe the 350 has balanced inputs only. What preamp are you planning on using?
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Ok I just got it on Saturday and I'm having some issues getting sound out of my speakers. I have a Yamaha pre amp going into it at the moment. The inputs on the back of the PM 350 look like the pictures below. I'm using two half inch Jacks into each T.R.S. to get a connection but still not much luck
 
CoryS06 said:
Ok I just got it on Saturday and I'm having some issues getting sound out of my speakers. I have a Yamaha pre amp going into it at the moment. The inputs on the back of the PM 350 look like the pictures below. I'm using two half inch Jacks into each T.R.S. to get a connection but still not much luck
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I'll look into the issue a little more when I get home tonight, but I think you are going to have issues getting you Yamaha hooked up to the carver because the carver only has balanced inputs and the outputs on the Yamaha are RCA. The TRS and XLR are balanced audio input connectors and to my knowledge you can't connect rca outs to balanced inputs unless you have a converter or a cable made to cross the negative with the ground at the TRS or XLR connector.
I'm not an expert on the subject so please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
i made same mistake first time around when i decided to use a pro amp for home. you have to use rca to ts jacks, not rca to trs. it's basically it's causing a short at the inputs. rca to ts is what you need. the yamaha pre would work fine with it.
 
I've used XLR to jack adapters - available on the bay and cheap - not sure if they would work for your application however worked for me for inputting to a balanced-input in active crossover.
 
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