Carver, THE standard of excellence IMO

I would rather not dominate the thread but I thought you might like to know that I scrupulously avoid talking about the performance of our products on these types of forums. I think that’s for you to discover. That’s why I stuck to the legal issue and not Bob’s remarkable record of accomplishments. I’m delighted to answer technical questions. I’m delighted to debunk myths and I’ll throw one out for fun in a moment. I’m delighted to speak about the technology of our products. I have no problem discussing legacy brands and models because I enjoy the romance. I really like this stuff. In this case however, the mythology was acrimonious, aggressive and blatantly false.

Okay, here comes my controversial myth busting statement (I was soundly attacked on the AVS forum with this): nearly all specifications available to all of us as consumers are bull----! I just combined two TV shows into one-- MythBusters and Bull----.

A statement like that can hijack a thread so suffice it to say, in my opinion (ha!), since there are no hard and fast definitions, legally, for any of this stuff, or, for the regulations we do have--IEC, DIN, FTC, etc. there is no accountability. We can say and print anything we like with impunity. Furthermore, how many times have we seen identical specifications on products that sound completely different? Even frequency response is meaningless because some companies lie, some companies measure in strange ways, and frequency response in isolation does not tell us much. Here are the specifications that I tell people to pay attention to:
1) the sensitivity of the loudspeaker (you may rest assured that our measurements often disagree with manufacturers claims but it could be important and usually is)
2) the cost of the product so you can afford it
3) the weight of the product so you can move it around to a good spot in your home
4) the size of the product so it will fit into your lifestyle
I think these are the most important specifications.

Okay, I hope I haven’t hijacked this thread and I’ve reverted having fun with it since I’ve already received phone calls from forum members offering me gracious support. Please, let us continue pursuing high fidelity but combined with fun! I hope my four specifications were entertaining. Now everyone go have a good dinner.

Yep, I have a crimson 275 and am a fanboy myself....Looking forward to new Carver products.

So which one of us is Bob?

@davekay-  Ever heard of Bob Carver?

My first thought on reading the OP was to chime in with that's great, doesn't surprise me, and then give my own Bob Carver story. But before I could even get that far I came across clearthink and his awful post and Franks perfectly appropriate response.

Another perfectly good thread hijacked to no good end. All in a good days work for clearthink. I sincerely hope he does get sued, and good, and that he learns from it.

And now, back to the OP.

The first powerful and really good sounding amp I had was a Phase Linear back in about 1973. Being kids we had a party and my friend brought his JBLs and I hooked up mine and pretty sure being know just enough to be dangerous kids we hooked em up 4ohm style to get more power and ran that amp so hard you could hardly stand to touch the heat sinks. Being around Christmas time it was snowing and so obviously only one thing to do, fill a bag with some snow and put it between the heat sinks.

Yeah. No kidding. 

That was actually my brothers amp so who knows what other abuse that thing got but one day he says oh its gone I got these Carver Cube amps now. What? Yeah this amp that had stood up to mega abuse didn't die and was way out of warranty but somehow something happened and Bob Carver replaced the one Phase Linear with two of his much better Cube amps. I want to say it was something stupid, like a meter quit and they didn't have an exact replacement so Bob.... whatever. Point made. Man stands behind his work.

But wait- I got more! Been mentioned Carver's in Washington. Lynnwood, WA, to be precise. Or at least was back when I first met the man giving a talk introducing Carver's Amazing Loudspeaker. Being a starving college student no money for speakers or anything else but it was a great talk and clear the man is some kind of genius.

His genius showed up again some years later when he came to Mercer Island, the Seattle audiophile club to talk about and demo his Sunfire sub. The first time I was young and didn't know that much and recall even less. This time though he talked about speaker cabinet resonance and electromotive force and how the incredible current required to get a freight train moving would pretty much reduce the whole thing to a slag of molten rubble except for the way they use this resonance which is what he does in the Sunfire. Okay so I reduced an hour talk to one sentence how much sense is it gonna make? Then after explaining design principles he fires the thing up and demonstrates it does in fact work - by shaking the living daylights out of our great big meeting room.

That's four stories over 30 years, every one nothing but positive. Carver amp takes massive abuse keeps on running. Carver standing behind his designs- even when no longer his company and no longer under warranty. Carver graciously educating, explaining and answering questions.

Integrity. Genius. Enthusiast. That's my experience of Bob Carver.