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Carver rant- can they really be THAT bad?

Carbsandcaps

Carbsandcaps

Super Member
3 of 4 of the carver products that I’ve sold over the years have arrived DOA to the sellers. These were all tested before shipping and worked great.

I’ve read numerous complaints about quality issues with carver and phase linear products. They seem to use more gimmicks than a used car salesman. “Magnetic field amplification” “sonic holography”. One such return was a mxr-2000 receiver. The guy said the sonic hologram wasn’t working. How am I supposed to respond to that? That receiver was supposed to put out 200 watts per channel. It weighed less than a cheap Sony. If that thing put out 200wpc it must have been right before it caught fire and at 100% THD. Speaking of catching fire, I’ve heard more than one story about phase linear amps catching fire and/or blowing speakers at turn on. I’ll be selling any carver products that I come across for parts from now on.

Anyway that’s my rant, what are your thought on carver products?
 
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Bob is a genius, have a Carver CD player and “holographic” (huh?) receiver. Forgot the model numbers, with remotes, that the original owner paid huge dollars for in the late 80s/ early90s, picked them both up locally for $50 and they sound great. Shipping can be brutal on almost any vintage audio gear if not packaged properly (or I should say especially when not packaged properly).
Always wanted something Carver in the collection, just because of all the hoopla, and for the price certainly not disappointed. Your mileage may vary.

Quick edit - HR 732 - fairly pedestrian yet Japan made AV receiver, and fairly robust SD/A410 CD player. Didn’t get the Signets however, and should have.

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I've only worked on a couple and don't remember the models. One was a preamp and I thought the construction was less than great and the parts were cheap. The other was a mag field amp and it was decent, but the nature of the power supply hammered the filter caps. I was able to service it, but it's a design that only an experienced tech should touch. As for the Flame Linear 400, I remember it had simple overcurrent protection but was prone to failure.
 
Carbsandcaps said:
3 of 4 of the carver products that I’ve sold over the years have arrived DOA to the sellers. These were all tested before shipping and worked great.

I’ve read numerous complaints about quality issues with carver and phase linear products. They seem to use more gimmicks than a used car salesman. “Magnetic field amplification” “sonic holography”. One such return was a mxr-2000 receiver. The guy said the sonic hologram wasn’t working. How am I supposed to respond to that? That receiver was supposed to put out 200 watts per channel. It weighed less than a cheap Sony. If that thing put out 200wpc it must have been right before it caught fire and at 100% THD. Speaking of catching fire, I’ve heard more than one story about phase linear amps catching fire and/or blowing speakers at turn on. I’ll be selling any carver products that I come across for parts from now on.

Anyway that’s my rant, what are your thought on carver products?
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Flame Linear?
 
My father had a Flame linear in the 70's that sounded nice with his big square floor standing speakers (Tannoy, I think) until it sent a shot of DC strait to the speakers and one of the voice coils in a woofer actually got blown out and smoldered... that was the end of that system for him, he bought a used Magnavox or Zenith console (tube powered) which my younger brother still uses.
I had a lot of friends in the Air Force in the 80's who bought Carver equipment and all them had nothing but trouble with them, even brand new out of the box. For me anything associated with the used car salesman Bob Carver is a no-go.
 
The Carver C-1 preamps I've worked on (10, maybe 12) have been of good construction, simple in design and layout, easy to work on, and exceptional in terms of sound. Nothing "cheap" or "shoddy" about them.

The holographic circuit was in the same category as click-and-pop elimination, dynamic range expansion, etc. Analog math applied blindly to some audio signal. Some people like it, some hear nothing, and some hear nothing additional or different pleasing added to the original. All up to the listener. After very carefully restoring the circuit to its original, from the factory glory and listening for a few minutes... I left it off mostly and soon forgot it was there. That doesn't make Carver bad or any more gimmicky as any other decent, reputable brand. All the "low TIM" or "no TIM" and similar "advances" honestly engineered and heavily marketed and only partially appreciated are effectively the same kind of hype as "holographic" sound.

IMHO
 
I inherited a Phase Linear 250 from my uncle.

Apparently it had problems as he installed four fuses into the faceplate.

I believe it still had problems after that.

It looks great, though.
 
442_Tom said:
Bob is a genius...
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krautmaster said:
..For me anything associated with the used car salesman Bob Carver is a no-go.
Click to expand...


Having read enough threads I can say the above quotes seems to be a common refrain for and against.

Having never owned any Carver gear I can not say either way if they are good or not. I do know there used to be a "Carverfest" in N.C. where folks would go rent cabins and indulge in all things Carver

His tube amps based on or off of the Packard Bell DPA series of amps is quite polarizing.
 
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