Amp Hunting

BKphoto

Its kind of funny, whatever make and model you like google it, 1/3 thinks its "Meh..." 1/3 hates the very shelf its sitting on, and 1/3 think its the greatest thing they've ever heard...

Anyway, I'm on the hunt for a NAD 2700...I have a ridiculously mint NAD 1020 pre that I've had for a while and would like to stay with same manufacturer...

I know the relays go bad but that really isn't that big of a deal...

Now, I'm also looking at others and will sell my preamp if I go a different road...

Carver M-1.0t
Carver TFM-35
B&K ST 2140

Need a good bit of power but not tons...My next speaker project is a set of Infinity RS IIIa's...They aren't power hogs like the Kappas or SDA's...

BKphoto

anyone have experience with any of these...? good or bad...

tonyb

Sound wise, I'd take the B&k over the Carvers any day.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/ele/4575015262.html

This what you really want ?

BKphoto

yeah...i have a tech buddy who says the Carvers are harder to work on...these will all need work sooner or later so that is a concern...

Yeah I emailed the guy but haven't heard back...

BKphoto

pulled the trigger on the B & K

erniejade

Good choice on the bk

BKphoto

Seller isn't too far away and I can bring it back if I'm not happy....While researching it was difficult to find a negative review or thread...and not very hard to find this with the others...Power output is what i wanted, plus its close by and I'm not welded to it so looking like a good call...

My system has been in flux for sometime and I'm finally (hopefully) ironing it out...

onearmrog

Carver amplifier are a great product until over driven, then they will burn up your speakers, you other components, your toaster and possibly your neighbors cat, all of the amplifiers on your list are pretty old and you could do better by buying newer, but if I had to do it again I would buy an Adcom 555, not as nifty to look at but a better design, better parts and better sound with the same power for the same amount of money.

BKphoto

Actually you really can't do better...I tried...I'm not breaking balls...I set out to go with a new or fairly recent amp but really couldn't afford what I wanted/needed...I'm not to worried about the B&K being older, its around 12 to 14 years old so should be good for a while...

Your mission : find an amp thats around 180 watts into 4 ohms and sounds as good as the B&K...Oh yeah you have $400 limit...

BKphoto

its here...haven't unpacked yet....

ugh...packing peanuts, hate those things...

BKphoto

Once again "Baa da bing" Get the amp in mail, looks great...hook everything up....no left channel, no drama, just nothing....I open it up and see a blown fuse..."why...?" is the question....i don't see anything out of the ordinary...no scorch marks, etc....could this happen because of shipping...?

please help me obi wan....

B&K ST2140...

voltz

Wow! its almost not fair what you been going thru lately. I thought only PFB had that kind of luck. hope its just a fuse.

BKphoto

tell me about it....

I'm like Charlie Brown lately...

Phatattack

I owned a carver c-16, it was by far the best preamp I have owned. I have had 3 carver amps die on me.......

BKphoto

Ha, I know....although on a side note i did cure my TT rumble...

So, new fuse, turned on with cover off and no drama...buttoned it back up and now back in the system and see what happens...

BKphoto

no idea...I got an inline filter....works great sounds great...

BKphoto

well, it appears that all is not lost, my guy says the fuse holder was too lose and not contacting the fuse right....he squeezed it together, put a new fuse in and played it for 24 hours....

has this happened to anyone else?....I'm happy that its not smoked but kinda feel stupid it was something like this...

polk500

Hey brother don't get down on yourself. It's an easy fix and nothing serious that's the main thing.
As for stupid I just spent 20 minutes trying to spin a disk and realizes I didn't put it in DUH....

Cheers
Roger

BKphoto

ha....

tonyb

We all do stupid stuff. I once was pissed off for about 10 minutes because I couldn't get any sound.....until after I found out I needed to plug the amp in.

Called myself all sorts of names for 3 days. Eventually blamed it on age though.

BKphoto

part of me doesn't believe it....it does make sense when i looked inside and everything seemed completely fine....

50 beans is better than buying another amp...and now my dollars can go towards refurbishing my IIIa's

BKphoto

All is good...




So far...

Dennis Gardner

Glad to hear that the fuse holder was all that was wrong. I was surprised that it didn't have any sound but the fuse stayed intact. I've seen too many rail fuses blow swapping cables hot. I finally learned to hit the power anytime I need to swap out cables. The exposed WBT posts on my Odysseys seem to catch stray patch cable ends way too often. Now Klaus puts the covered safety posts on all his amps.

BKphoto

no, the fuse was spent...kept going bad without much drama....quite nervous last night listening...

Just got Zep I remaster, was spinning that last night...really low kids were sleeping so I really couldn't tell you if its an improvement or not...I've always thought Zep recordings were midrange heavy...will listen again today...

EndersShadow

Well if you end up needing another amp... I just so happen to have a Carver M1.0t I am selling thats been upgraded to a Carver M1.0t MKII opt002 so its been fully repaired/refreshed and modded for more power and comes with a lifetime warranty. More info on that here...

Let me know if your interested (my FS ad has to be "approved" for some reason)

BKphoto

hopefully I'm good on amps for a while...

thanks