Hey everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Nick and I hail from northern Illinois. I've been into audio since I was a little kid but never really knew what I was doing...still don't! I first got into Carver stuff a year or two ago. I was cruising craigslist for gear and found some old Kef speakers. I'm of English heritage, so I'm a bit of a sucker for Kef and other British audio gear. So, I go over to this guy's place and he plays these Kef's for me on a random system he has set up. They sound awesome, so I pay the man and take them home. Hook them up to my janky old Denon receiver and I was so disappointed. I was trying to figure out what kind of black magic he pulled on me. While I was there, he had tried to sell me some equipment he had lying around. He had a Parasound pre-amp and amp combo and an Onkyo pre-amp with a Carver AV-405. I'd never heard of any of this stuff, but I called him right back and said I'd buy it all to take advantage of the old Kefs. What little did I know about the slippery slope had just fell down.
I started reading about Carver and got hooked. Not long after, I got myself a C-1 off of eBay and loved it. Next thing I know, I've got the thing torn apart and I'm doing the billD mods. Now I've got this amazing pre-amp and the AV-405 that has a dead front channel so I'm running my system with the one good channel and the center...not ideal. I've pretty much settled on swapping it out for an M500t because I can't get over how pretty it is and who doesn't love some old school power displays??? Just yesterday I thought I had found an M500t in town but, alas, it was sold an hour before I emailed him. But then, he threw a wrench in my plan. He says he's got a 1.5t with a weak channel and a 1.0t with a hum. Says he'd sell either of them to me for $100. So, now I'm really tempted to buy them both and see if I can fix them up. What do you guys think?
Anyway, here's a summary of the jank-tastic system I'm running right now:
Pre-amp/amp
Carver C-1, BillD recap/upgrade
Carver AV-405 with a dead channel
Speakers:
KEF Q300 bookshelfs on stands
Sources:
B&O Beogram 3404
iPad/Dragonfly Red DAC