New toy in the house!!

Fongolio

I recently bought a used Carver TFM-45 on Ebay. It arrived yesterday. It shipped from Missouri to where I live in British Columbia. Only damage was the VU lamps were dead. I had two spares for my TFM-25 and soldered them in this morning. Price was $500 plus shipping and duty at the border so total was about $630.

The unit was in at Rita's in February 2009 and was brought up to new spec so I know it's good for a long time. Bob Carver signed it as well (see pics).

I have to say this is a considerable upgrade from my already great sounding TFM-25. The TFM-45 has more bottom end at all volumes but what really is impressing me so far is the improvement in midrange. I was listening to Peter Gabriels Shaking The Tree last night and the SDA-1C's have never sounded better. The soundstage was wide deep and tall. The SDA effect is the best I've ever heard with some instrument sounding like they were behind me. What a great amp!! I am absolutely loving it.

Knucklehead

Thats a sweet looking amp...I love the meters.

NJPOLKER

Whats with the equalizer?

nadams

So want an amp with analog meters. Has anyone ever built a kit for adding meters to something? I have no idea how they get the readings from the amp without adding noise inline. I've got lots of real estate on the front of my GFA-545 to add meters.

punk-roc

I really like my TFM-42 (which is just the 45 with a bars on the front instead of meters) and I'm actually looking for another one.. I love mine!

Jason

Fongolio

NJPOLKER wrote: »

Whats with the equalizer?

Until I can afford proper room treatments the EQ does the job. It's one of the biggest and best EQ's ever made that's fully analog. It's amazingly quiet and works very well. It's almost a parametric in the sense that the switches below each of the frequency sliders control the center frequency of each slider. Each switch has three positions for three different center frequencies for each slider.

Many here will shudder at the thought of an eq or tone control of any kind but I'm not one of them. To my ears and anyone else's who's heard my setup the eq improves the overall sound quality. And it looks cool all lit up in red led's.

Toolfan66

Nice!!!

Congrats..

danz1906

Congrats!

leroyjr1

Congrats !!!!!!

Should last you another 20 years.

hearingimpared

Very Nice Kelvin!!! I hope you get 20 more years of enjoyment out of it. That EQ is beautiful sexy. I'm not an EQ man but I love the looks of them.

SNOW just sent me one and I'm trying to figure a way to hook it up to my rig so that the pretty lights jump around with the signal but are not in the signal path. Maybe the tape loop disengaged, I don't know but I'm trying to figure it out.

engtaz

Congrats

Fongolio

hearingimpared wrote: »

Very Nice Kelvin!!! I hope you get 20 more years of enjoyment out of it. That EQ is beautiful sexy. I'm not an EQ man but I love the looks of them.

SNOW just sent me one and I'm trying to figure a way to hook it up to my rig so that the pretty lights jump around with the signal but are not in the signal path. Maybe the tape loop disengaged, I don't know but I'm trying to figure it out.

On the Carver C-1 there is a circuit and button called external processor that works similar to a tape loop but specifically for eq's etc. I can have all the dancing lights but cut the eq out of the signal path if I want. It really looks pretty at night all lit up in red.

George Grand

Just send the signal to the EQ from the tape loop, but don't send it back. Voila! And do not select "TAPE".

There was a great guy named Thor at AK. He would buy anything off me that had "bouncy lights".

RuSsMaN

I remember Thor, looked like he never met a cheeseburger he didn't like. I don't think he even had lights in his audio room, with all the spectrum analyzers and LED's bouncing.

Cheers,
Russ

hearingimpared

George Grand wrote: »

Just send the signal to the EQ from the tape loop, but don't send it back. Voila! And do not select "TAPE".

There was a great guy named Thor at AK. He would buy anything off me that had "bouncy lights".

Thank you Sir. I thought there was some way to use the Tape loop.

helipilotdoug

I just got a couple of Carver pieces too. The other day I hooked up my Polk SDA 2B speakers to the TFM-45 with the C-11 and my CD player. Put on a little Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Welcome to the pleasure dome. It's a CD that will really show you how your system is doing in just about any range from the birds chirping to heavy bass. Great sound! I could only run the volume up to about -10DB, and at that level, the sound was smooth as silk. Nothing seemed strained, or even close to being overdriven. When the wife goes to work, I might crank it up a little more. My old Proton gear was really good, but this Carver equipment is better. I tried both with and without the subwoofer, and those Polks did a fine job without it. Hooking up the TFM-45 to my Pioneer 84TXi HT is a challenge. I'm still working on balancing this out, and getting the mains set up right. That's my main PITA with this Pioneer. It has so many adjustments to make, but you don't get to actually listen to the sound as you make a lot of them. Anyway, all in all a great day I'm Very happy with my new, vintage Carver equipment.

George Grand

And what will you do for a sense of normal?

This one is lightly salted fellows and ladies.

Thor never met a cheseseburger he didn't like, that's for sure. His brother worked at Dysart's Truck Stop. Damn good food there. Thor obviously sampled.