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Hi everyone who reads this, greetings from the center of Europe - Poland. My name is Łukasz and I have been walking around this world since 97' so relatively recently, the only Carver product I have at home is the Car Audio Carver M-4120 amplifier, I must admit that in the future I would like to rebuild it because it is in poor visual condition, but technically it is efficient. Carver is not the only amplifier I keep at home, unfortunately I got sick with collecting about two years ago and I have about 20 other amplifiers from the 80'-00' era and still growing. I realize that 90% of the people here are people who deal with Home Audio, but I hope that we will get along somehow. Best regards

Just saying hi, I run a carver m 500t asy amplifier for a pair of Klipsch cf3. It's the best amp I've owned so far!

Now working on a MXR130 with no power, just Carver lights up, after about 10 seconds after turning on the power transformer will make a pulsing noise. There was no shorts found in the amp or power supply ckts. I did check C203 on the turner board which I had in the previous units were shorted. Not sure where to go from here and need to estimate to the customer.

Hi all, First time to own a Carver, HR 895 to be exact, with unbalance sound and crackle. Searching for schematic and found this site. Nice to meet you all Conrad

Hey gang, My first "good" piece of gear I owned was a Carver TFM-15. Tons of love and nostalgia for that piece that's been gone for decades. I had a buddy give me a TFM-35 in good working condition that I plan to recap and clean up. I've missed those dancing meters! I'm looking forward to taking a look around. I'll post some amp photos once I'm able to!

Well until I broke a button, that is... So here's my story: I live in Southern Maine now. Back in 1988 I purchased an MXR150 receiver when I lived in Mansfield Mass from a department store called Lechmere. It came with the walnut veneer wood sideboards which I thought was pretty good looking. Then about 15 years ago, as an amateur woodworker, I thought I could do even better so I cut 2 slabs out of some Brazilian cherry I had and copied the original boards exactly. I finished them in 3 coats of semigloss urethane. The result was spectacular. I think I might have the most gorgeous Carver receiver ever (unless someone else did the same thing and outdid my Brazilian cherry wood). I will upload a photo when I get permission. So I've always kept this unit in pristine condition. I still have the original box which I use whenever I move, and I have the original FM antenna. The manual is somewhere in storage (I hope). The only problem is the sound of this receiver has been getting lousy. I figured it needed new capacitors and luckily I found the refurb kits on Ebay by Circuits and Concepts. I'm still waiting for the kits to arrive but I got the instructions and figured I'd start pulling some of the old caps and resistors. So I'm flipping the unit over and my hand accidentally crunched the video/dad button. The plastic on these things are obviously old and very brittle! I'm sure I'm not the only one out there with broken knobs or buttons... So my question right now is is this button available anywhere? And is it possible to change it out? It looks like it's very difficult to access it, there's so much wiring and stuff to dismantle in the display panel. Any advice?

New here. I've had a Carver system for years, but I'm going to need some help from the seasoned vets to keep it going! Sonic Holography HR-752 (amplification bypassed) TFM-25 MFP amplifier TDR 2400 Cassette deck TLM-3600 10 disc CD player Polk Audio RTA 11t tower speakers

This was his shop stereo, and he was an Excelsior Henderson motorcycle guru for the last nearly 25 years. I knew Carver was good from back in my youth, and if my great good friend Jamie had it I knew it was worth having. I'll be re-socking the Vandersteen Model 2's and refinishing their wood, looks like they got wet at some point since 1989-1991 when they were new. I believe there are some recommended things to do to the Model 1-0t amp and the Model C-1 Control Consol. There's also a TX-2 receiver. I'll be giving these to my daughter's family so they can enjoy it as Jamie and everyone else we knew did.

Looking forward to sharing knowledge and ideas. I’m retired EE with a passion for Phase linear Amps. Some day would like to own either 700 II or Dual 500. Bought a 400 series I and II many years ago (1990’s) Both blew fuses so needed output transistors. Could find the PL909’s do used any old non To3 the local shop had. Kept blowing fuses after a while. Got smarter as I got older and ordered M15024’s mixed with PLs. Finally went to all 12 15024 in each amp which resulted in better stability. Tried to bias the amp and shorted/exploded a low Ohm resistor across the back of the T03 connector with the VOM probe. Replaced it and now waiting to unbox it all after moving and starting again. Oh well!

Hello fellow Carver enthusiasts! I am a retired electrical engineer with a long interest in Carver products. I own a Carver HTR-880 Receiver from the 1990's, purchased at the late, great Cambridge Soundworks retail store at the Northshore Mall in Peabody, MA. It was originally a gift to my late father, and I got it back just before he passed. The one issue I have is I can't find the owner's manual for it! I'm hoping someone can help me find one. I'm thrilled that Bob Carver is back! I wish him the greatest possible success in his latest venture. I look forward to sharing my fondness for Carver products with all of you. Best Regards, Bob Atkinson

Who here can relate?

Hello to all! Like most of you, either you inherited some type of Carver gear, bought some Carver gear because you heard it was very good, or actually saw it working before your eyes. Mine being the latter of the three. My experience goes back to the mid 80's when my best friend had a set of 901's in the Army barracks (top floor) at Fort Polk (North Fort) with a 1.5 hooked up. My my, I'll never forget the roof lifting when he turned it up. Very memorable. Fast forward to 2024 and me picking up a M500t off of the bay. I purchased a new face plate, but my real issues are the left Side Cap (cosmetic damage) and the front glass (also cosmetic damage). Are there any alternatives for replacement or refurb services, such as polishing out deep front glass (plastic?) scuffs? Are parts still available? Thank you from South Florida, Fort Lauderdale area.

Hello everyone I wanted to update you all that I just posted List 1 of Barry Galvin's Estate sale on the Novice's gear (FS/WTB) forum. Apologies for the long delay I injured my ankle and wasn't able to go to the storage unit and get an inventory and was only able to get a partial inventory but wanted to get things moving. I believe there are about 10 more pieces of equipment and more components to post. Thank you all for your patience.

I remember the day and all the music we would listen to some needs help and show me how to set it up if any one is cool about the help at my house in eastern washington

Hey everyone. Im Randy. Bob has always been my hero. I love how he started out making stuff the small guy could afford, yet it sounded like the top of the line. Many heavy hitters in the industry lost in blind testing to his creations. Anyway enough about that. I have been extremely sick I am a bit better now, but I was Death bed sick. Started in 2006. I’ll just say I was taking enough medication to kill a large horse my pain was so great I begged God to let me die. I had stomach issues , migraine for 25-30 days non stop neck and back pain. I now have 13 plates, 26 screws 2 rods and a clasp holding my neck together and had to have every tooth removed due to bone infection. So I am much better now. It just took the Dr so long to figure things out for me. This Bob Carver…… wry compassionate. I would get on an email with Bob. He was so kind and polite and even though I could barely string a sentence together or say anything coherently, no syntax at all….this kind man would talk to me. What I never told him was that I contemplated suicide because the outlook for my life was dismal and seemingly without hope. I was bed ridden for nearly 4 years and Bob would answer my phone call and speak soft kind words and because he showed so much grace. Well my goal was to build the mono block 350 amps. I can tinker but my goal is this, Bob knew I didn’t know how to build an amp and now that my health is much better I want to learn how. I do want to thank Bob cause I wanted to take enough medication to end things. Bobs kindness helped in my decision not to…..more than once. So, first I want to thank Bob and say what a great person he is. And secondly, hello Bob Carver fans. I hope to learn during this journey, to learn from all of you how to do fulfill this dream. I have two chassis and the pre amp tubes and the electrolytic caps and most other parts. Any starting advice I’m all ears.

Patience and scouring eBay will eventually yield the Carver Autosound system dreams are made of. It took over two years to create the a/d/s system I used to have in my Odyssey…

Perhaps you could list the equipment that you have and we could walk you through how to set it up.

Powered by Lightstar: Crazy peak db. (yes , I wore earplugs 😝)

Thanks again for the warm welcome, Everyone. Here are more details and pictures. The TLM-3600 is out of rotation due to malfunction. Sonic Holography Receiver HR-752 MFP Amplifier TFM-25 TDR-2400 Dual Cassette Deck TLM-3600 10 Disc CD Player Tascam CD-RW900 Mk II Yamaha YP-701 TT (Ortofon 15XE MK II) Polk Audio RTA 11t Tower Speakers

Oh I hope not. I am a full on vinyl guy but I have at least a couple hundred CD's that I love listening to.

Hold pants guys

I see that the topic is still alive, and you probably liked it. This week I will be ordering capacitors for recap, and maybe I can look into the paint shop. And here is something to read

They restore/refresh, just like any other amp..., I recall that thread from @Carlton8000, or another thread, that he (or someone) recapped and refreshed the m240's he had. I've found that the "background noise" or a good portion of it, for me, was actually road noise, or noise generated by the car/cabin acoustics..., I only did one car audio build, when I was in my 20's..., so today, with all the sound deadening, and other things one can do..., I wonder if it's as bad. I have in my garage, a full system, brand new, that I picked up for my F150..., pioneer head unit, infinity cappa speakers for all four doors, and an infinity kappa sub... It's one of those projects I keep putting off. But I know that one thing I must do is put in a lot of sound deadening in the doors, where there's lots of flex from the increased throw and air movement of those Kappa's. I don't think I'll go so far as to deaden the floor of, I'm too lazy to pull out the seats, and carpet, to add it.

Welcome, @Bobh, Glad you found us. I'm not a tech, but there are some here that may respond. Just a heads-up that this is a volunteer community of Carver afficianado's and fans..., not really a tech support site - although there are many technical threads of work, restorations, refreshes and repairs for many many Carver components - that's what the volunteer aspect is. We welcome you to start thread on your repair and contribute to the community with your diagnosis and repair. That will likely get more volunteers to pipe in over the next few days/weeks. Most of the techs that are members here are in business, and don't visit that often - they are just swamped with Carver and non-Carver work as I understand it. There are some hobbyist techs too that are exceptionally skilled, they are likely the first to respond, if they can. FWIW, the MXR-130 is a beloved receiver, and there are many examples of restorations and repairs in the forums. You could browse the receiver section, or use the SEARCH function - that will also help guide your research..., beware, there is a LOT here, and search will give you lots of threads to peruse..., and may take time. Again, welcome, glad you found us, and enjoy the deep resources here in the threads. Oh, btw, do you have the docs and schematics for the MXR-130 to work from? If not, check out the manuals library (top of page, main menu "Manuals and Specsheets".

Hi.was wondering if anyone has done recapping etc. to the Amazing speakers for better sound.Thinking that there older now and parts in the crossover may be out of specs..Any help appreciated..thanks Bill

Love me some Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, early Eagles, early Jimmy Buffet. that said... Patsy Cline, Sweet Dreams soundtrack

After hearing that I decided I needed this.

Welcome aboard @Tuesfurioza! Yes, mostly home audio guys but there are a few car audio buffs here. I’m one of them. 😁 I have an extensive collection of A/D/S gear I’ve accumulated. I just wasn’t aware of Carver car audio at the time. I’ve recapped my amps recently and did a burn in on some speakers in my basement shop. The ADS amps will rival most good home audio gear. I’m sure those Carver car amps will too!

I use the individual account, to feed content to my Roon account. Roon handles "everything, everywhere, all at once" Meaning Tidal doesn't know that I have this in 5 rooms, AND in my car streaming as mobile through my ARC extension to Roon. (Cost, I have the lifetime subscription..., so I don't pay for Roon anymore on a monthly basis). Roon manages all the devices, and Tidal is not aware (nor Qobuz). Ostensibly, MQA is dead, and not used on Tidal..., and no longer paying MQA licenses, this move was part of how they were able to lower their prices, recently.

Coleman Hawkins, Cool Groove

If possible, please document your refresh work with photos and comments here on the site. I am sure there are many who would enjoy seeing your work and hearing about your experience as well as knowing about the end results.

Glad you like them. I've shilled them before. No commercials, funded by donations, blues oriented with some jazz shows. I live in the right spot for FM reception, they bury the meter on my tuners. I can pick them up in my Grand Cherokee for about a 15 mile radius from their tower.

Ok I went to the other side today.

Ambrose Akinmusire, On The Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment (album)

Welcome! Nice story on the side panels for your MXR150. And I'll certainly agree - there's nothing like nice real wood for audio components. And sorry to hear about the button but if you search the forums here, you'll find there are a number of us looking for those plastic button caps for various Carver components (I'm looking for a CT-6 power button myself). They are pretty fragile and only get more brittle with age. To the best of my knowledge, there aren't any off-the-shelf replacements so looking for a system that's being parted out seems to be the best option (for now). I'm intrigued by the idea of 3D printing buttons and other small plastic pieces, but I have a long learning curve before I could try this personally. Hopefully someone more skilled in that area will jump in and give it a try. And glad you found Circuits and Concepts for some replacement components. Post some pictures when you get started as quite a few of us enjoy following along with repairs/refurbishments.

A copy editor's nightmare...

Number 4

@Receiver2000In that case, maybe I'll try to set up a topic in the section that @Sk1Bum gave, maybe I don't have a lot of these amplifiers, but a large part of them are considered as SQ built. I will also try to describe them as much as I managed to find information on the web.

@3M_Audio @xavionics @Cring08 I would love to share some photos from my collection, but unfortunately none of them came out of Bob's hand. The rest of the amplifiers I have are mainly Japan and USA - Zed Audio. So no one is likely to be interested in them here 😂

Welcome! As someone in the car audio equipment industry, I'm always interested in anything car-audio. Keep your posts coming!