A very nice evening
Well, this has been a very fun evening for me. Let me explain...
It started with a craigslist ad, which three of the Seattle area members emailed the seller about. Yes, the one regarding the Carver Amazing Platinum MkIVs. Well, it turns out I was the lucky emailer that the seller was able to get ahold of. How I was the first person he contacted, I'm not sure. We had been pretty busy at work all day, and I was not getting to check craigslist nearly as often as I might have normall on a Thursday afternoon. Anyways, he called me and told me they were all mine. Apparently he has received over 130 emails regarding them, and has even started receiving hate mail for not replying to those emails.
The seller was a very nice man from the Seattle area who used to work as a materials engineer at Carver. He is 20 days from retirement and moving to Tennesee, hence the sale. The speakers had been sitting in his heated garage for the past two years. They never made it into the house because the wife thought they were too large. (They are pretty big. Its pissing my wife off already.)
It was so cool listening to him talk about his experience with Bob Carver and working for Carver. Apparently these speakers themselves (the two exact ones in my living room) were tuned and given the final okay by Mr. Carver himself. He listed a bunch of musicians and celebrities that own the Plat. Mk4s. (Bret Favre, The Moody Blues, I forget the others) He told me about Bob's mansion in Snohomish, WA. Told me about how Bob was a terrible businessman, but a genius engineer, and how he was hired to turn the company around, and did so, until Bob got divorced and lost the company to his wife. Anyways, you get the point, it was just so awesome having someone know that much about what they were selling to you.
He looked over my other gear while he was there. He didn't seem to be too familiar with them, but was ripping my SDAs apart. He gave the Sunfire his thumbs up and said the Dodd pre was awesome. Twice in fact it was dubbed 'awesome.' It was pretty cool having him over. I could tell he wanted to get home, but I tried to get as much out of him as possible.
Now onto the bad. Apparently the Dodd bit the dust while he was here, or shortly before. Only one channel plays at a time, but both speakers are working fine. Tried two different amps, same result. So, I'm a little bummed out about that. Its either send the Dodd back down to Texas for repairs, or try and find a reputable shop in town. I tried switching the interconnects, making sure all connections were nice and tight, and even swapped around tubes and speaker wire. Whatever, its always something.
Then, the guy leaves, and I get a chance to pop off the grills. One woofer has a small bend in it, one looks like it got punched pretty good, and one has the top layer broken open and pealing off. ****! Wasn't expecting that. Not that I can complain, I got them for a steal of a deal, but now I have to invest in replacements, and I have NO idea on how much at least 3 woofers are going to cost. I guess they were all brand new too.
Overall, its been a great experience. They're not going to get much listening until I can get my pre back up to par. I'm not going to listen to them in mono.
And a picture just for the hell of it.
It started with a craigslist ad, which three of the Seattle area members emailed the seller about. Yes, the one regarding the Carver Amazing Platinum MkIVs. Well, it turns out I was the lucky emailer that the seller was able to get ahold of. How I was the first person he contacted, I'm not sure. We had been pretty busy at work all day, and I was not getting to check craigslist nearly as often as I might have normall on a Thursday afternoon. Anyways, he called me and told me they were all mine. Apparently he has received over 130 emails regarding them, and has even started receiving hate mail for not replying to those emails.
The seller was a very nice man from the Seattle area who used to work as a materials engineer at Carver. He is 20 days from retirement and moving to Tennesee, hence the sale. The speakers had been sitting in his heated garage for the past two years. They never made it into the house because the wife thought they were too large. (They are pretty big. Its pissing my wife off already.)
It was so cool listening to him talk about his experience with Bob Carver and working for Carver. Apparently these speakers themselves (the two exact ones in my living room) were tuned and given the final okay by Mr. Carver himself. He listed a bunch of musicians and celebrities that own the Plat. Mk4s. (Bret Favre, The Moody Blues, I forget the others) He told me about Bob's mansion in Snohomish, WA. Told me about how Bob was a terrible businessman, but a genius engineer, and how he was hired to turn the company around, and did so, until Bob got divorced and lost the company to his wife. Anyways, you get the point, it was just so awesome having someone know that much about what they were selling to you.
He looked over my other gear while he was there. He didn't seem to be too familiar with them, but was ripping my SDAs apart. He gave the Sunfire his thumbs up and said the Dodd pre was awesome. Twice in fact it was dubbed 'awesome.' It was pretty cool having him over. I could tell he wanted to get home, but I tried to get as much out of him as possible.
Now onto the bad. Apparently the Dodd bit the dust while he was here, or shortly before. Only one channel plays at a time, but both speakers are working fine. Tried two different amps, same result. So, I'm a little bummed out about that. Its either send the Dodd back down to Texas for repairs, or try and find a reputable shop in town. I tried switching the interconnects, making sure all connections were nice and tight, and even swapped around tubes and speaker wire. Whatever, its always something.
Then, the guy leaves, and I get a chance to pop off the grills. One woofer has a small bend in it, one looks like it got punched pretty good, and one has the top layer broken open and pealing off. ****! Wasn't expecting that. Not that I can complain, I got them for a steal of a deal, but now I have to invest in replacements, and I have NO idea on how much at least 3 woofers are going to cost. I guess they were all brand new too.
Overall, its been a great experience. They're not going to get much listening until I can get my pre back up to par. I'm not going to listen to them in mono.
And a picture just for the hell of it.
Post edited by Shizelbs on
Comments
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Congrats on scoring those Amazings bud. Sure sorry to see the problem with the woofers. Gonna be hard to find replacements I would think. Really sux about the Dodd too. Hope your able to get things going again without too much cost.
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nice snag bud. soon you'll have a NEW house FULL of speakers.
seriously though. good work. I'd love to hear them when they're back in shape. So you won't be able to listen to them till you get your Dodd back? Or do you have another source to run them off of?
I don't think it was cool for him to dis your SDA SRS's. They are fine speakers. But to each his own i guess. If he worked for Carver, i'm guessing he's going to be partial to them as well.
Either way.. you scored some Amazing speakers. ha ha ha.PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin: -
Contact me directly Shelby, I'll get the Dodd looked at, personally, in short order.
Make sure you pull the tubes, and 'roll' them around in the sockets - if they are NOS, corrosion is ALWAYS a factor. There is little in the ELP that can actually fail, from an electrical standpoint.
Cheers,
RoosterCheck your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service. -
I have very good news for you right here, http://www.dynavox.com/
Click on Products, click on 12" and find part number WP-1220. Those are OEM replacements for the Plats and they are only $25.00 each. You should buy all 8 as the foam has past it's life expectancy and who knows how much longer the replacements will be available.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 -
The dynavox site is down at the moment. Thanks for posting it. Gets my vote for best post ever. I saw the suggestion over at the carver forums too. The seller said all the woofs were new, but they haven't seen any use in over two years. I will likely just buy all eight. I am very relieved to know they are only $25 each.
Russ, I'll message you on AIM or something tomorrow. Thanks for the assistance. -
It's working for me. Try it again, http://www.dynavox.com/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 -
No sir, not working for me. Not with IE or Firefox.
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Hmmmm....still works for me. Anyway, here's the contact info.
Main Office (West Coast)
Mailing:
P.O. Box 2207
La Puente, CA 91746-0207
Shipping:
248 N. Puente Ave.
City of Industry, CA 91746-2303
Tel: (626)336-0516
Fax: (626)336-3748
Order Hot Line: (626)333-6803
East Coast Branch
Mailing:
201 Hopedale St.
Hopedale, MA 01747
Shipping:
201 Hopedale St.
Hopedale, MA 01747
Tel: (508)473-6777
Fax: (508)473-6767
Order Hot Line: (508)473-6777Political 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 -
Alright, problem has been diagnosed and fixed. One of my signal cable interconnects wasn't up to the job. After swapping around ICs and eliminating the source and the pre as the bottleneck, replaced an IC with some cheap-o rat shack cable and got the system back in action.
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that's good that it was only a problem with an interconnect.. so did you fire up the Carver's then?
How do they sound?PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin: -
Holy smokes. The detail is fabulous. Super fast ribbon tweeter. I'm getting detail that my Sennheisers never gave me.
Bass is a little lean, but my source blows, the gear is cold and I am using new tubes I'm not too familiar with. The Amperex might being going back in next album.
They're growing on my wife too. Its fun watching her get more and more into the hobby with me. She thinks they sound great too. I've noticed she's been listening to and buying more music lately. Its a nice change. -
Nice score.
The Polk SDAs were a very sore point with the Carver Corp and the guy being a Carver man...... well, that might be where the SDA blasting came from.
