drsickstrings

Ok....I got it fixed. Nothing wrong with the Preamp. I plugged it into My HK 870 amp. It sounded great. I knew the amp was the problem. One channel was a lot louder than the other but sounded like a transistor radio. I got the shop manual and started doing some tests. Looking for 6mv at the test points. One channel was around 3mv and the other channel was around 77mv or some ridiculous number. Got them balanced around 6.6mv and plugged it in. THe amp sounds great. I also noticed that I can calibrate the meters. I don't have any equipment to give me a signal at 100w. I ordered new terminals, and I still plan on recapping it...some of the big caps have leaked a bit. I am also replacing the lamps with blue led bulbs. Does anybody know any way to calibrate them reasonably well without a scope and signal generator?

Thank you for the thread. I am thinking of recapping mine. Some leakage in mine. There isn't a ton of work to do. Just curious....do you have any pictures of the bottom of the board prior to the rebuild? Mine has handful of small caps and resistors soldered to the bottom. I'm not sure if they are supposed to be there.

I finally got back to the Carver....and here is what I found. Cleaned everything. The preamp looks SUPER clean inside. Standing back playing something sounded off. One channel sounded decidedly low fi but loud. I began to suspect the amp itself. I just plugged in my HK 870 amp into the Carver preamp and it sounds fantastic. I think I am going to overhaul that amp. A couple of the capacitors are suspect and may have leaked a bit but it is in good condition overall. If anybody has a M500T overall thread they would like to share I would appreciate it.

No I haven't but I'll give it a shot. Just have to hunt up a 1/4" adapter.

I haven't tried it yet but I'll give it a shot. It seems like the setup is working better the more I use it. Possibly the caps needed a good workout as well.

Seems to be. Right now I am using Tape 1 for my cd player and it seems to be the closest to balanced I have found. I also think the needles on the M500t should be calibrated. Of course that will be another post.

I'll look it up. Thank you.

Thanks I'll try that.

I tried it today. Tried turning off all the effects and it sounds pretty even. The VU meters are still not equal but the sound coming out of the speakers sounds about even. I haven't had enough time to really take it out of the stand and look inside. I'd actually like to do some measurements and see if now it is still a preamp issue or the meters are just not reading correctly.

I'm new to this forum. I had Carver equipment years ago and just got some more. I just bought a Carver C-1 and M500t. When I first hooked it up there was no sound out of the left channel. After fiddling with the connection I got sound. I pulled the covers off the preamp and sprayed the switches and pots to clean them. It works but there seems to be a lot more output out of one channel than the other. This is the preamp because I switched the cable left for right and the problem changed sides. I just wonder if maybe the balance needs to be sprayed a little more or possibly replaced. I'd appreciate any input into this. The boards are clean with no signs of leaky caps or bad traces, bad solders etc. Even if somebody has a link or a suggestion to point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.