New (to me) Tube Amps

dpowell · April 3

After nearly 10 years since selling my Anthem Amp 1, tubes are back in my life in a big way. Huge thanks to @nooshinjohn who bent over backwards to make a deal happen for me while I was still in the throws of having my newborn in the NICU.

John tipped me off that a pair of Carver Crimson Beauty 350 tube mono blocks was available but I originally decided to pass on them. 2 reasons. I had too much on my plate at the time and I was honestly considering which upgrade (replacing my Sunfire Signature Grande 5x400 or Pass Labs X1 pre amp would give me the most bang for my buck. John's recent conversion from the church of Pass Labs to the church of McIntosh had me wondering.......

John decided to reach out to the seller and negotiated an absolute steal that I couldnt resist. He also went and picked them up for me and gave them a good cleaning.

My daugher and I drove up to John's on Monday to pick them up. While there, we enjoyed listening to his L800s. John has found true synergy with the combination of the Moon DAC and McIntosh Pre. The result is a level of detail and satisfying bass that is absolutely stunning.

After a 3 hour drive home through LA rush hour traffic, I had just enough time before bed to get the amps situated, fine tune the bias and hook up a pair of vintage Monitor 4 bookies for a short test drive. I decided to test them out on a less expensive set of speakers first before trusting them with the 1.2TLs. The sound was phenomenal. Ive never heard those bookies sound so good.

The next day, I hooked up the 1.2TLs and WOW. The Carver mono blocks up the level of detail and precise positioning of instruments and add a pleasant level of tube musicality. The amps have a vast reservoir of power that I will never fully utilize.

Next on the list is trying out various speaker cables to find the new synergy for my system.

Thanks again @nooshinjohn for helping me get these and for you and Nooshin's hospitality Monday.