WTB: Power Amp

bert26

I am looking to pick up a power amp to use in driving the mains in my home theater set up. These are SDA 1b's, so I will need a bit of power, but nothing crazy. I would like to spend between $300 and $500, and I have a fetish for Carver stuff. I have been looking on e-bay for things like the Carver TFM-35, but I wanted to see if anyone here had something they wanted to sell. I am also open to suggestions.

I throw myself at the mercy of the forums sage wisdom!

Thanks in advance!
Chris

louthewiz

I have some audiosource amps that are real gems and I got them at www.ubid.com for practically nothing and it provides plenty of power , you also might check audiogon.com for some amps also but i had some carver amps before and I just seem to prefer the audiosource for price and value. If you want to check out this link http://www.ubid.com/actn/opn/getpage.asp?AuctionId=10500873 :rolleyes:

bert26

Hey Lou,
Thanks for the link. That certainly looks like what I am after. I am not familiar with Audiosource at all, so any other words of advice would be appreciated. I guess it's a pretty strong endorsement as you own some!
Chris

bassaholic

I have a Carver TFC-15CB. I havent used it in about 2 years but it worked perfectly before storage. $225 shipped. Have original manual but no box. It looks much better in person....somehow it looks faded and dull in the pics. Lights and meters work.

adam2434

I also picked up two Audiosource Amp Three's a couple years ago on Ubid (refurbs for $160 each). I have them monobridged for my LS90's. Their not high end amps at all, but they really improved bass and dynamics over my receiver's amps, especially for what I paid.

Good luck.

louthewiz

I have read somewhere that carver provides some of the internal parts for audiosource and thats why I got 2 of them. Lou

Mazeroth

I own nine Audiosource 150w plate amps I picked up for $25 each, new. I'm in the process of modifying them for full-range use. They really are built nice.

I've always been fond of Audiosource for their bang for the buck factor.

bert26

NINE?! I guess if your gonna be a bear, be a grizzly!
Thanks for the advice - the 300 model that Lou sent the link to on Ubid looks pretty nice. Can you guys tell me what you like best/worst about them? I have to place this in a semi-enclosed space, so I am concerned about things running hot. I have a Carver CM-1090 that I am using now, but it runs quite cool. I want to get it out of my HT rig so I can take advantage of the phono stage in the 2 channel rig.
Thanks again guys!
Chris

louthewiz

The reason I reccomended the audio source amp is because it really has no downside to it they make a great product and that's why they have been around for so long,and the nice thing about ubid is that they are an authorized dealer and they give you 30 days to try the product out which in my opinion is plenty of time to fully test that puppy out. Lou

adam2434

In my experience, the pros for Audiosource are that their bigger amps provide a great bang for the buck upgrade over typical receiver power. However, in my case this is using 2 AMP Three's (300 is the model #) monobridged at 400w each. When I tried just one to power both channels, I did not get the same level of improvement to bass depth/control and overall dynamics.

For me, the cons are quality control. One of my units had a transformer hum that Audiosource couldn't fix. They did, however, send me a replacement refurbed unit. So I guess their customer service is another pro.

Here's a review of the AMP Three from a few years back. They actually compare it to a Carver in the review.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_5_1/audiosourceamp3.html

doggie750

bassaholic wrote:

I have a Carver TFC-15CB. I havent used it in about 2 years but it worked perfectly before storage. $225 shipped. Have original manual but no box. It looks much better in person....somehow it looks faded and dull in the pics. Lights and meters work.

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