Carver Pro ZR1600

I have a question for you guys that are familiar with these Tri-Path amps. I have heard two of these amps, but not under conditions that i was familiar with or could really pass judgment with. Compared to a modified Adcom amp, i thought that the Tri-Path's were a step forward.

How do these amps do with lower impedances ? From what i've seen, they are higher in distortion at 8 ohms and measurably lacking in terms of the ability to pass current as impedance drops. On top of that, if they are like most other amps, the distortion will climb noticeably as impedance is reduced.

Given that i tend to prefer speakers that have a lower impedance with high quantities of reflected EMF ( multiple drivers, large motor structures, speakers with sharp phase angles like E-stat's ), i have to wonder how suitable they would be for installations using anything but benign dynamic loads ?

In my book, a "good" amp should be able to drive most any load that you throw at it. Obviously, some will do better than others due to build quality and circuit design, but then again, some do miserably with all but a few types of speakers. As such, what i'm asking is "how universal are these amps" and "do you think that the results that you are obtaining in your system will be easy to duplicate in other systems" ? Sean
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sean...Get with the program!! :)

Sean, the best answers are to be found at the ongoing threads specifically on the Carver Pro ZR Tripath amps and modification discussion, at audiocircle.com.

The short answer to your question is that from what I am seeing, they are pretty much load-invariant. I sat and listened to a ZR1600 cruise through difficult and highly dynamic material on a pair of Maggie 1.6 which were enjoying that particular combination ALOT. Resistive loads don't seem to worry these amps at all, nor do wildly varying moduli. Further, they run merely warm to the touch. I have twice read that some are buying them for their Apogees, which kinda says it all.

Sean.

All demos of the Carver 1600 unmodded and modded were using Maggie 1.6s.

Regarding mods...After studying the schematics, and reading about Mod activity, I "popped the cover" (a simple matter of sixteen screws) and looked inside. From what I saw I don't think much is practical with a few exceptions.

The fan replacement (with a quieter model) is easy.

Bypassing all the preliminary signal processing stuff with a wire to the amp itself is practical. Connection can be made without great difficulty at a coupling capacitor location.

Input and output terminal hardware can be changed, although what's there looks OK to me.

The inputs are on a small separable assembly which occupies a shielded box about 4X3X6 inches. It connects to the mother board with a plug-in cable. There is lots of room for a completely new input/driver/processor circuit: for example a Marchand electronics crossover module would fit with room to spare. Carver plans to sell various modules to replace the standard input circuit, but they have not yet told us what will be offered.

Now the bad news. The components (including IC OP Amps) are all surface mount which I find almost impossible to remove/install. There are many. The chances of swapping out all the OP Amps without destroying some part of the circuit board is near zero IMHO. With perhaps a few exceptions, the existing circuits cannot be upgraded with better components. You would have to go completely around them with a wire or with completely new circuitry.

If audiophiles think that the ZR1600 would be better without various ProSound features, and with some better capacitors here and there, the obvious course of action is to get Carver to build an "Audiophile" version. Carver would do well to hire some of the better known Mod people as consultants to do the design. I suspect that the audiophile version would cost no more to build, as quite a lot of circuitry would be eliminated.