Carver Amazing Platinum on Ebay in WA state

danger boy

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9702177894&indexURL=0&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting

found this pair of Carver Amazing Platinum near me.. if anyone is interested i can check them out for ya.

No affil to these

F1nut

Those look minty, even the backs and bases are clean, which is rare.

Toxis

wow those are big. I'd like to hear 'em.

danger boy

me too, but i don't know the seller.. and i feel to guilty asking for a demo, because I'm not interested in buying. I'd love to have a pair. but there is no way i can afford it right now.. having just bought a pre amp a week ago.

Toxis

and I'd hope he'd give me a free demo if I drove from Kansas to get them lol. But that's not going to happen seeing I just bought a house this week.

maingey

congrats on the house

TroyD

Right speakers, wrong coast.

BDT

RuSsMaN

Al, if you want to hear them, just ask him. If he's an audio guy, he'd probably love to show 'em off.

Tour2ma

Gone for the BIN price of $1399.

On the high-side of historical range, but worth it, especially for a local and if you're into the Oak models...

danger boy

yup. gone bye bye. next!

DiscoMike

Ive heard alot of Polk members salivating over these speakers. Being I never heard these speakrs, or have much experience with ribbon speakers, how great are they ?

How do these speakers compare to the SDA Series, or the SDA-SRS ? Do I dare ask how they comapre to the SRTs ?

And how do ribbon and/or electrostatic speakers compare to regular cone-driven speakers ?

Shizelbs

Mike, I've had SDA SRS, and now have the Carvers. I think the Carvers win handdowns in every conceivable area, except soudstage width, every day of the week. To me, they are clearly the better speaker.

The ribbon tweeter is very fast and quick to give detail. That was apparent to me immediatly during the first listen.

Midnite Mick

I was thinking of maybe a DIY speaker down the road. Curious how the ribbon tweeter compares with the Vifa of the lsi's

Mike

Joey_V

All this talk about Carver Amazings... makes me want to audition a set.

Shizelbs

Joey, with all the speakers you subject yourself to, you really owe it to yourself to hear a pair.

ohskigod

Positioning is a ****, thats the down side. Mine sound different every place I put them. of course, that they are in a wierd shaped basement that is the size of my house does not help.

they have a wide open soundstage, very open and natural, deep soundstage thats just different from a box speaker. some will love, some will not love.

I have friends, granted with untrained ears, that love my LSI15's over the Carvers. But the Carvers just have that open sound that will keep them in my basement for quite a long time

Shizelbs

I agree with your comments on the soundstage. While its not as wide as the SDAs, I actually prefer the soundstage and imaging of the Carvers to my SDAs. The Carvers feel more natural, more possible, whereas the SDAs always kind of felt gimmicky.

DiscoMike

OK, how bout we all get together and petition to have Polk build the first of its kind - an SDA Amazing Speaker consiting of cones and ribbons ? Or better yet, an SDA-SRS Amazing Set of speakers ? Perhaps one with a built in subwoofer ? And while we are on the topic, lets have Polk build an electrostatic subwoofer !!! (Is that even possible or concevable ?)

Lets see how many are willing to jump on this bandwagon !

Midnite Mick

Don't these comments kind of apply to electrostats in general vs. cone?

Shizelbs

The fantasy dream SDA petition thing has happened and beat to death already. Not gonna happen.

Mick, I don't have enough experience with electrostats to comment on them.

ohskigod

Midnite Mick wrote:

Don't these comments kind of apply to electrostats in general vs. cone?

I think a ribbon is different from an electrostatic.......i think

Midnite Mick

I don't either which is why I ask. All I have heard are Magnepans and Logans. Both had very life like and real sound, very open, a floating type of sound that you could not point to the source. But they lack the bottom end and this is why Martin Logan does the hybrid thing with the coned cabinet at the base. But even with them, they require a certain room size to breath and position is critical. That all.

Midnite Mick

ohskigod wrote:

I think a ribbon is different from an electrostatic.......i think

Don't the upper models of Magnepans have a ribbon tweeter? Not sure just asking myself.

schwarcw

I heard a pair of Amazing Mark IV Platinums at a friends house recently. I was floored with the smoothness of the HF, deep bass response. It had a smaller soundstage than my SDA's, but it had a wider sweetspot.

Carter's Amazings don't have a great reputation among planar enthusiasts. The Martin Logan's or the Maggies have a better following. I don't know why, I liked the Mark IVs over the Maggie 3.6's.

Joey_V

Mick,

The new Logans have a much better low end, I always felt the older ones were weak and sloppy down low. You're right about positioning though, they are painful to get right.... but then again, which speaker isnt?

When you get up to upper strata speakers, usually the positioning is critical and of great importance since the owner wants to squeeze as much of the potential as possible, considering what he/she just paid for it.

I find that positioning is very key - in ALL speakers, not just electrostats.

Shizelbs

SDAs have a sweet spot. Amazings have a sweet area.

heiney9

ohskigod wrote:

I think a ribbon is different from an electrostatic.......i think

FWIW,

Electrostatic
Literally electricity that is not in action, otherwise known as static electricity, which is technically an electrostatic charge. Anytime one surface or point has an electric charge relative to another you have electrostatic energy, which is a form of potential energy. Electrostatic is also a type of transducer design. Most widely employed in loudspeakers, electrostatics (as they are often called) are built somewhat like a large capacitor. There are two plates, one of which can move. A DC bias voltage is applied to them to create an electrostatic charge. Then the AC audio signal is applied, and the interaction between the resulting (alternating) magnetic field and the electrostatic field forces the movable plate to move back and forth. Some audiophiles consider this a more pure and better sounding method of reproducing audio than our typical moving coil dynamic loudspeaker designs. However most tend to be quite expensive and it is debated whether there is an overall improvement in sound - many electrostatic speakers are characterized as having little or no bass punch. In fact separate subs of standard moving coil design are often employed as a workaround for this.

Ribbon Speaker
The ribbon loudspeaker consists of a thin metal-film ribbon suspended between two magnets. The electrical signal is applied to the ribbon which vibrates creating the sound. The advantage of the ribbon loudspeaker is that the ribbon has very little mass; as such, it can accelerate very quickly, yielding good high-frequency response (although its shape is far from ideal). Ribbon loudspeakers can be very fragile but recently designed planar tweeters have the metal film printed on a strong lightweight material for reinforcement. Ribbon tweeters often emit sound that exits the speaker concentrated into a flat plane at the level of the listeners' ears; above and below the plane there is often less treble sound.

These are the basics and I'm sure some shortcomings of each has been dealt with during design.

H9

heiney9

Joey_V wrote:

Mick,

The new Logans have a much better low end, I always felt the older ones were weak and sloppy down low. You're right about positioning though, they are painful to get right.... but then again, which speaker isnt?

When you get up to upper strata speakers, usually the positioning is critical and of great importance since the owner wants to squeeze as much of the potential as possible, considering what he/she just paid for it.

I find that positioning is very key - in ALL speakers, not just electrostats.

Logans are electrostatic and use a conventional moving coil dynamic driver in the lower cabinet for bass. Kind-of-a hybrid so to speak.

H9

heiney9

Damn, this is the FM, I forgot if I don't have any interest in buying said item I can't post. Sorry please don't ban me I forgot where I was :eek:

H9

audiobliss

Well, it was nice knowin' ya, H9!

Joey_V

heiney9 wrote:

Logans are electrostatic and use a conventional moving coil dynamic driver in the lower cabinet for bass. Kind-of-a hybrid so to speak.

H9

Thats what I meant... I mustnt had explicit said it.

Oops.