I don't know. I don't make product recommendations for several reasons, one being I don't care to keep up with all the stuff that's out there. I read about it but generally I don't go listen to it. There's not that much to listen to in Dallas anyway.
Why are you interested in Carver? Because someone told you it was good stuff? Go listen for yourself. Because it has lots of power? You probably don't need as much power as you need better quality power. There's plenty of stuff to choose from, I just wouldn't bother with Carver.
I owned some Carver gear back in the day. It was fine at the time & at the price point, though audiophile purists tended to treat it like a red-headed stepchild.
At the time, it was a step up from NAD, but that's no longer the case. I just listened to a CD yesterday that I hadn't played in 20 years and it sounded better through my NAD 162/172 than through my Carver pre/amp then -- I heard clarity I hadn't heard before.
Your Brystons would make a Carver amp pale in comparison.
"You probably don't need as much power as you need better quality power".
I found that out Jan. When I moved to my Brystons (120 watts) they were theoretical a step down from my bridged NADs (300 watts) power-wise. But they kick that crap out of the NADs.
I was really more curious about the Carver stuff, just seeing at all over ebay, and never hearing it.
I really have no intention of moving from Bryston to Carver.
lol good man David, while I was reading through, I was thinking to myself "David you have Bryston Mono Blocks" lol. I would rather own the C272's then old Carvers. And would obviously rather own Bryston to either.lol. Nothing is wrong with checking used gear out though, I do it all the time.
I thought my modded Carver M-4.0t was great. Than JV lent me a MAC MA-6200. The Carver never got back into the kit. After hearing the 20+ year old integrated with a fraction of the power my Carver had I could not even begin to describe the differences.
Let's say I found out how musical the Carver wasn't.
That was in my room with my kit.
Others will differ, greatly. There are a number of folks out there who really love the Carver sound.
Having just gone thru this, I went with the Carver gear. I a/b'd it against the NAD 162/272 combo, and I liked the Carver better and it was substantially less expensive. I think we all know you can spend more money to get better, me included, but at the price point of the Carver equipment, I think it's a great bang for the buck. Jan's comment is a little confusing to me since he normally tells everyone to listen to what they are interested in, but with the Carver equipment he says stay away, but he can't suggest what would be better? Wierd. One additional item, Bryston and Mcintosh aren't in the same category nor price point as Carver gear.
Oh, and DM, according to most Carver enthusiasts the M-500T is thought of as one of, if not the sweetest sounding Carver amps. That doesn't include the 7t's and 9t's as they are in whole different class and thought of as the premier Carver Amps.
"Jan's comment is a little confusing to me since he normally tells everyone to listen to what they are interested in, but with the Carver equipment he says stay away ... "
"Why are you interested in Carver? Because someone told you it was good stuff? Go listen for yourself."
"I don't know. I don't make product recommendations for several reasons, one being I don't care to keep up with all the stuff that's out there."
I read the above as there's something better (for the same money), but you wouldn't know what it is because you don't keep up. That's an unusual (and confusing) argument.
I'm not confused about that. The point is, Thom, as I have told you, I cannot and won't try to tell you what you will like. If Carver floats your boat, fine, it's your system. I can easily think of more than a dozen brands I'd rather own than Carver and few that I would take the Carver instead of. However, that should have no influence on your decision. I don't know what Nuck would like. I don't know what you would like. I don't know what anyone out there would like. You probably wouldn't like what I own. As a matter of fact I never expect anyone to like what I own. I really don't care. I like what I own and I like what I own for specific reasons. As long as you can explain why you like something, I don't care what it is. Please don't ask me what I like, I've been through this before on this forum. The point here is someone asked me what I thought about Carver gear in general and I told them - in general. I don't know what they might think would be superior and what I think is superior I already own. And what I own can't easily be had any more. So buy what you like and not what I like. What that might be for anyone out there, I don't know. But for me, it ain't Carver.
Nuck - not an argument, just a little playful banter.
JV - I didn't say you were confused, you were confusing me. I know that you won't recommend products, I know that you say to listen and decide, so I found it confusing that you would recommend against a particular product.
And it seems from the other posts of yours that I've read and been involved in, that you are a wealth of information. You also seem to like to make people work for their answers, which is fine. I just wonder if you jumped right in to the high end of audio or if you had a progression. I would assume a progression, but I could be wrong. Do you have huge regrets of some equipment that you bought years and years ago, or did you enjoy the progression from lo-fi to mid-fi to hi-fi? Just wondering.
Finally, I think we are in agreement that if something interests you, you should listen to it and make your own decision?
"There's better for the money" should not be taken as a recommendation to not listen to a product. If anything, you should go listen for yourself to decide if I'm right and, if you find that I am right, to determine just what is better for the money.
Did I jump right into high end audio? Do you mean did I ever own a record player with tilt out speakers and a stylus that had "78" on one side and "33/45" when you flipped it to the other side? Yeah, I did and I played it to death.
Then I bought a cheap Radio Shack system because that was the only store in my town that sold something without flip out speakers. And I literally played it to death.
While I owned that system I got my first job selling audio at the #1 Advent dealer West of the Mississippi at a time when Advent was the #1 selling speaker in the US. And I started selling McIntosh, Advent, Tandberg, JBL, Fisher, Ohm, Citation, Rabco, Dual, ADC, Infinity, S.A.E., etc, when those were the brands to have.
I have no regrets let alone "huge regrets" about anything I have owned or now own other than the products such as the three head Nakamichi cassette deck that no longer has anything to play. That has become an expensive paper weight no matter how good it was at the time I bought it. I don't buy things just to buy them and I hold onto what I own because I like what I buy before I buy it.
I still have my first real receiver, a dual powered, high current, high slew rate HK 730. And I still have the Citation 12 Deluxe that replaced that receiver's power amplifier though I sold the Dayton Wright pre amp I was using with the Citation. Then I bought what I still own. Nope, no regrets there.
Jan i still see the Citation power amps on Audiogon going for a good chunk of change. Those were nice amps back when H/K were making a very nice product. My Father had Advent speakers.
