Carver Silver 7's

George Grand · March 2005

I participate in a different forum than this. I THOUGHT an individual had posted 2 non-working Carver Silver SevenT amps for sale. He was looking for best offer.

They sold for $550 for the two. They were Silver Sevens. The ORIGINAL Silver Sevens. The original TUBE Silver Sevens...
the ones hand built, and 375wpc. It APPEARS all they need is tubes.

Those amps were $17,500/pair when new.

If my little legs were just a tad longer, I would be able to KICK MYSELF IN THE ****! I'm freakin' sick over here.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

HBombToo · March 2005

what year Mr. grand? Shite I missed a relic cuz I been so busy....

HBomb

George Grand · March 2005

1990 or 91. It's the amp to end all amps that he designed specifically to shove up Stereophile's ****. He built them and I'll be damned if they DIDN'T fit squarely in Stereophile's zorch.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

TroyD · March 2005

Oh, man....now I feel ill....

BDT

RuSsMaN · March 2005

That's just sick. Whatever is wrong with them, I could have had remedied in VERY short order.

Cheers,
Rooster

Dennis Gardner · March 2005

Offer the winner double, he may not still know what he has.:D

George Grand · March 2005

That's pretty doubtful. If he was posting here about HT receivers it would be a possibility, but he isn't.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

Tour2ma · March 2005

Ugh... Did a quick search for grins and found one classified... Sold for $25,000...

As I remember Bob C. created the Silver 7 to stand as his reference for the design of the M-4.0t. He wanted his own reference amp vs. using the "high-end" brand he "nulled out" one weekend in a hotel room with a tweaked M-1.0t. Turned out there was a demand for the 7 itself.

GG,
They made like 1000 of these... yes?

George Grand · March 2005

Yes Bruce. After "The Great Amplifier Challenge" in Santa Fe, the Stereophile guys just couldn't give him the credit he had just earned in the motel room they paid for. Three things came out of the challenge:

1. He absolutely with no questions asked, met all the parameters he and Stereophile had set forth. In 48 hours, in a motel room, he made his solid-state, $629 retail amp sound EXACTLY like a pair of Conrad-Johnson Premier 5's. Stereophile admitted it. In fact, after 24 hours, his amp sounded exactly like the C-J's, except the low-end wasn't as "muddy" as the C-J's. Those were Stereophiles words. "Yours has better, tighter bass" were also Stereophiles words. So he sent them home, "muddied" up the low-end on his amp, called them back, and Stereophile threw in the towel.

2. It was reported in Stereophile that he "won", but they just HAD to add that they didn't THINK he could keep up the QC on a factory assembly line.

3. They also said, "If he's SOOOOO good, why doesn't he design his OWN reference amp instead of emulating the sound of everbody elses?"

That pissed him off enough to design the Silver Seven's. I don't recall if Stereophile ever reviewed it, but The Absolute Sound did, and they indicated it was in fact, maybe the best amp ever built.

Every SS amp he designed after that was "transfer function modified" to emulate the sound of the Silver Sevens.

That run started with the M4.0t, and included the TFM series (I don't think the TFM-6 or TFM-15 are included) of amps. TFM-24/25, TFM-35, TFM-42/45, TFM-55, and TFM-75. Naturally the TFM standing for transfer function modified.

I know he didn't produce a lot of Silver Seven's, and I'd venture 1,000 was about right.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

TroyD · March 2005

I've got a back issue of Stereophile, can't remember if it's the one where they SAVAGED the Silver 7t's or the Amazing Plats but it's got an interview with Bob and he gave some insight on the whole deal, I'll dig it out and peruse it. I do remember him saying that he sold a hell of a lot more than he thought. He didn't figger anyone would buy them.

BDT

ksuwildcats2004 · March 2005

let me try and see if this works.are these the carvers you are talking about. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=71544&item=5755466550&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Tour2ma · March 2005

Sorta... but the 7t's and 9t's are SS amps...

The Silver 7's were tube amps...

ksuwildcats2004 · March 2005

can the silver 7 push low ohms?

Tour2ma · March 2005

Without a doubt... Hard to think of a Carver that cannot...

TroyD · March 2005

According to the Carver Silver 9t manual, it's stable into a short circuit for a brief period.....

Stereophile in it's savage review of the Silver 7t's went on to say that while Carver CAN hand tweak an amp they had reservations if it can be done in mass production (which wasn't part of the Carver Challenge). Bob's calculations were that he was achieving a 36-40db null when compared with the tube Silver 7 (this equates to 99 parts of 100 the same, which even John Atkinson had to admit in a subsequent interview was pretty damn close). Stereophile couldn't dispute Carver's numbers with any of thier own and don't you know that they would have if they could as they have no shortage of testing equipment. So they just subjectively berated the amp.

BDT

Tour2ma · March 2005

Troy,
What issue of Stereophile was that article in?

TroyD · March 2005

The Silver 7 review was in the Jan. 1990 issue, the interview with Bob Carver and review of the Carver Amazing Plats are in the Feb 1990 issue.

Pretty sure that both are still available as back issues from Stereophile, I got them last summer for reading material in the desert.

BDT

Carver Silver 7's

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