Happiness is only an amplifier away..
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Ceruleance
Posts: 991
I've had my Carver M-500t and C-1 preamp for about a week now. Quite pleased. Im not going to come out here and say that its night and day, but bass response has increased and tightened (I had to turn down the gain on the powered towers) So if anyone is itching to upgrade I would recommend going to seperates, and browsing the pages of ebay often. When I sell the tuner that came with the package I will have paid LESS (and perhaps significantly less) than 300 dollars including S&H for both preamp and amp :eek: 
(For the sake of semi-scientific comparison, my source is a panasonic DVD player (DVD RV-31) and my old setup was a JVC RX-8010 rated for 120 watts/ch into 8 ohms. The M-500t is 251 w/ch into 8. Interconnects were an acoustic research optical cable to the jvc, and monster interlink 250's for all connections with the carver setup. By the way, A-Bing the fiber optic vs. the 250's into my JVC I couldnt hear a difference, but then again I maybe switched 5 or 6 times..)
(For the sake of semi-scientific comparison, my source is a panasonic DVD player (DVD RV-31) and my old setup was a JVC RX-8010 rated for 120 watts/ch into 8 ohms. The M-500t is 251 w/ch into 8. Interconnects were an acoustic research optical cable to the jvc, and monster interlink 250's for all connections with the carver setup. By the way, A-Bing the fiber optic vs. the 250's into my JVC I couldnt hear a difference, but then again I maybe switched 5 or 6 times..)