Carved C-19 Tube Pre
kharp1
Posts: 3,453
A few of you here know some of the story of this pre. This was my first entrance into tube gear and I loved what it did for my system and sound...this was the piece, coupled with the Marsh, that started moving down this wickedly twisted road towards one of the circles of h e l l.
The unit developed noise and was determined by Roland that I had a gain switch going bad. These were the weak spot by design. I sent the pre out to him in Seattle for a total upgrade. $900 later, including shipping roundtrip, and it's in it's break in period when noise reappears. I switched out tubes and still had noise. Roland said send it back. This was about two years ago when my saint of a mother passed away suddenly. The pre got put on the back burner during estate business and then forgotten. I wrote about it here and was encouraged to follow up with Roland, but, at this point I decided not to put anymore money in to it.
Fast forward to this weekend where I finally found myself with TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF, WOO-HOO!! After sleeping the first one away I got up yesterday evening and starting addressing the amps I have for sale and I saw the Carved sitting there and I started playing around with it. I put a NOS set of Amperex tubes in, and, Viii-ola, it works beautifully! The only thing I can think is I mistakenly put a bad tube in when trying to isolate the noise and determine if it was tube or something else.
The upgrades Roland did were never fully broken in, so, now I'm letting it go through it's break in period...2 years later! Only drawback to this pre is it is not remote capable. It dies, however, have a mm/mc phono stage and I'm thinking about getting a TT. I'm kind of leaning on selling this because no remote is a killer for me. I'm in the camp that wants a volume control.
Anyway, short story long, the Carved C-19 is alive and well.
The unit developed noise and was determined by Roland that I had a gain switch going bad. These were the weak spot by design. I sent the pre out to him in Seattle for a total upgrade. $900 later, including shipping roundtrip, and it's in it's break in period when noise reappears. I switched out tubes and still had noise. Roland said send it back. This was about two years ago when my saint of a mother passed away suddenly. The pre got put on the back burner during estate business and then forgotten. I wrote about it here and was encouraged to follow up with Roland, but, at this point I decided not to put anymore money in to it.
Fast forward to this weekend where I finally found myself with TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF, WOO-HOO!! After sleeping the first one away I got up yesterday evening and starting addressing the amps I have for sale and I saw the Carved sitting there and I started playing around with it. I put a NOS set of Amperex tubes in, and, Viii-ola, it works beautifully! The only thing I can think is I mistakenly put a bad tube in when trying to isolate the noise and determine if it was tube or something else.
The upgrades Roland did were never fully broken in, so, now I'm letting it go through it's break in period...2 years later! Only drawback to this pre is it is not remote capable. It dies, however, have a mm/mc phono stage and I'm thinking about getting a TT. I'm kind of leaning on selling this because no remote is a killer for me. I'm in the camp that wants a volume control.
Anyway, short story long, the Carved C-19 is alive and well.
Comments
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There are various ways to get remote control from installing a motorized pot to an external device.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I spoke with Roland about doing a remote but the cost of doing that was more than I wanted to do. Not sure if sound would be degraded running an outboard control.
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This is the best add on, http://www.audiocubics.com/
Then there's this one, http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/MCM-CUSTOM-AUDIO-50-8394-/50-8394
Depending on a number of factors you may be able to install this, http://www.bentaudio.com/index2.html
Looks like I can't get a direct link on the last one, so click on Alps remote system.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
This content has been removed.
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Very nice pre. I have a c16 and Roland maxed it out in a rebuild several yrs ago. No remote but that doesn't bother me in the least. Roland knows his Carvers. Mine won't be going anywhere, it will take a much better pre to unseat it.
The C19 was my holy grail, and from what i understand has a very nice phono stage. Is one tube dedicated to the phono section
Very nice -
Or get up & turn the knob like I have to.
Good exercise.
And put my greasy, fatty food and carbonated beverages down? That's crazy talk. At 51 and as hard as I work (everyday, 13-14 hours a day) when I sit down to listen to music, with the little time I have for it, I don't want to keep getting up. It's my relaxing time, my get myself centered for the world time, and, like time set aside for prayer or meditation, I don't want it interrupted. It's just so easy to get what I want without sacrificing. -
Very nice pre. I have a c16 and Roland maxed it out in a rebuild several yrs ago. No remote but that doesn't bother me in the least. Roland knows his Carvers. Mine won't be going anywhere, it will take a much better pre to unseat it.
The C19 was my holy grail, and from what i understand has a very nice phono stage. Is one tube dedicated to the phono section
Very nice
From what I gathered when I was in it last night it has 2 tubes for the pre and 2 for the photo stage. -
I couldn't remember.
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I spoke with Roland about doing a remote but the cost of doing that was more than I wanted to do. Not sure if sound would be degraded running an outboard control.
Not with the Cube. I'm not sure about the second one.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Ok, I'm curious, what's the cube?
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Duh, I totally missed that. Please forgive my continued stupidity, I just can't help it...appears I was born that way and the condition has only gotten worse!
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And here I thought this was going to be a Karma thread... crap!
Congrats on getting it up and running.The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
nooshinjohn wrote: »And here I thought this was going to be a Karma thread... crap!
Congrats on getting it up and running.
You wish! -
Please report back w/ your findings.
Is this going to be a shoot out against the Joule-Electra LA 100 MKIII? -
I don't expect there will be much comp with the Joule, but, I'm going to have an open mind.
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Here's a question slightly off topic.
I have a Hafler pre that doesn't have remote volume. So I set it's volume at 10 o'clock and use the variable out from Marantz SA 8005.
The other way would be fixed out from the 8005 and adjust volume at the pre. I have not tried it this way; lazy.
Which way should produce the best SQ or does it matter?Mojo Audio Illuminati v3>>Quantum Byte w/LMS>>Rpi/PiCoreplayer>> Starlight 7 USB >> Mojo Audio Mystique v2 SE>>ModWright SWL 9.0 SE Signature>>Hafler DH-500 Amp+ (Musical Concepts Fully Modded)>>
SRS 2.3TL (Fully Modded)...Velodyne Optimum 8 subwoofer
1KVA Dreadnought
Marantz SA 8005
Pioneer PLX-1000 Turntable - Shure SC35C/N35X - V15III/VN35HE
Yamaha TX-540 Tuner...Sony BDP-S570
Sony PS4
Separate subpanel with four dedicated 20 amp circuits.
1. Amplification 2. Analog 3. Digital 4. Video
"All THAT IS LOST FROM THE SOURCE IS LOST FOREVER" -
I used to have a C-19 the Rolland also did his magic on it. I could hear the difference between it being stock and after Rolland had it. That pre is much better then people think. On the old carver forums, there was a few people that preferred the sound on the C-19 to the Sunfire tube pre but, im going back 10-15 years ago now.
When I had the C-19, I was running it with a Sunfire amp, carver amazing speakers.Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's. -
Right now this one is running with the A21 and the JWM Allyson speakers. I can't remember who I got this one from, but, it was a polkie purchase.
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Which JWM Allyson speakers may I ask?
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The monkey pod he had at LSAF
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