Randy Myers
Well-known member
Nice looking amp Charles. I hope it thrills you!!!
$700 Amplifier that sounds identical to SOTA amplifierIf
- Thread starter CGabriel
- Start date
Thanks for posting this. As a young-ish guy (I was but a teen when the above article was published), it's enlightening as to a more complete understanding of Mr. Carver (and all that is ballyhooed about him both in his favor and otherwise), and an approach to "measuring" an amplifier to gauge its sonic signature that I had never heard of. I actually found that fascinating and am keen to do some more reading...
Great post!
Great post!
chops
Active member
Thanks guys, and you're welcome, Don. And yes Ernie, Rich still does mods. Mark (DaddyJT) is who performed the mods on the amp I'm getting. It along with the C-9 will be here tomorrow. That means I'll have all weekend to play around with them.
I used to have a C-19 pre. I sold it to go with a Audio Research SP16. To be honest, I cant say the AR was that much of an upgrade if at all outside of having a different signature sound. The c-19 was cleaned up / recapped by Rolland and it sounded darn good!
chops
Active member
Well, it's here, the Carver M-500t MkII along with the little Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram Generator. The amp looks near new, the C-9 literally looks brand new!
chops
Active member
Moved some things around and installed the C-9.
Randy Myers
Well-known member
chops
Active member
In a word, BALLS! And I don't mean that in the way that it has more than twice the power of the W4S. Just at normal listening levels (meters showing a max of around 1 watt), it has some strong, tight bass. The midrange is smooth and full yet a little more forward than the W4S. Treble is just about the same as the W4S, if just a touch more refined. But the more important thing, it has a wider and deeper sound stage.
And even more important than all of that... BIG METERS!
And even more important than all of that... BIG METERS!
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Dammit... my new little classic play toy doesn't have any meters at all... now I am depressed 
... glad you are liking it Charles!
... glad you are liking it Charles!
chops
Active member
Well Randy, get yourself a classic Carver amp! There's several different types of meters to choose from. 
Dammit... my new little classic play toy doesn't have any meters at all... now I am depressed
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Hehe... nah... waiting for my STP-SE and I will be good for now... really enjoying this little 45 watt dual mono Audio Research.... so clean...
chops
Active member
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Lol... yea, I don't think so ...
...
chops
Active member
Listening to this modified Carver M-500t MkII some more, I have a few more things to say about it...
It has a way of pulling out delicate details in the music, very light on its toes so to speak. Everything is super clean and clear. The words playful and lively comes to mind. I guess you could say it has the same performance traits of a good ESL speaker. Instant transients, uncolored sound with loads of detail and still remaining refined and non-fatiguing.
I'm listening to albums that I know like the back of my hand, and I'm hearing new details within that I never knew was there before. There's more acoustic space that can be heard, more decay in notes, shear black silence, extra textures in the instruments, and a warmish cozy feeling.
Does it sound like tubes at all? No, not really. Unless you consider the non-fatiguing sound and acoustic air along with the delicacy within the details as tube sounding. Then in that case, yes, it sounds like tubes.
And something I learned this evening about the MkII mod on these amps... Not only do they replace and upgrade every thing electrolytic capacitor in it, they also upgrade all of the diodes in the power supply as well as some kind of up-sized/upgraded transistors. And speaking of transistors, they replace the OEM Toshiba output devices with new and much larger Sanken output devices. These are the same used in a LOT of high-end audiophile amplifiers. These alone probably attribute to most of the sonic improvements in this amp.
I have to say, I'm really impressed with this amp. It has well exceeded my expectations by a long shot!
It has a way of pulling out delicate details in the music, very light on its toes so to speak. Everything is super clean and clear. The words playful and lively comes to mind. I guess you could say it has the same performance traits of a good ESL speaker. Instant transients, uncolored sound with loads of detail and still remaining refined and non-fatiguing.
I'm listening to albums that I know like the back of my hand, and I'm hearing new details within that I never knew was there before. There's more acoustic space that can be heard, more decay in notes, shear black silence, extra textures in the instruments, and a warmish cozy feeling.
Does it sound like tubes at all? No, not really. Unless you consider the non-fatiguing sound and acoustic air along with the delicacy within the details as tube sounding. Then in that case, yes, it sounds like tubes.
And something I learned this evening about the MkII mod on these amps... Not only do they replace and upgrade every thing electrolytic capacitor in it, they also upgrade all of the diodes in the power supply as well as some kind of up-sized/upgraded transistors. And speaking of transistors, they replace the OEM Toshiba output devices with new and much larger Sanken output devices. These are the same used in a LOT of high-end audiophile amplifiers. These alone probably attribute to most of the sonic improvements in this amp.
I have to say, I'm really impressed with this amp. It has well exceeded my expectations by a long shot!
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Excellent! Glad you are happy with it!