Hi folks,
Thanks for the quick responses. When Dad gave me the M200t he told me it was a really fine amp and as I've started to read up on it I'm looking forward to trying it out. One corner of my basement is pretty will covered up with a range of interesting mostly vintage gear, a lot of which came from Dad's recording studio. We're in a long-term process of finishing the basement and making a work out space that will have a TV and nice sound system, and that is likely where I'll employ the Carver to drive the AR 2ax speakers. But in the meantime it may get used for some light PA work as I have recently acquired (and repaired) a Mackie ProFX12 mixer that had a bad power supply. I would only be using that here, recording or jamming, not gigging, and not driving big speakers or working it too hard, but I would be interested to know what folks on this site think about that application. I know the M200t wasn't designed for PA (and maybe what I'm describing isn't literally PA?) but from what I've read it seems like it would handle pretty significant brief transients fairly easily and it seems that is the primary difference between live sound reinforcement and recorded music--but I may be missing something important there. When I did PA jobs with Dad I don't think we ever had any "PA amps" mostly just Dynaco or McIntosh tube amps, and typically not more than 60 watts or so driving Bogen or University columns. We also weren't doing rock concerts! When I got to join my older brother's rock band we had a 60 watt Bogen driving two University columns for the the vocals, everyone else was responsible for their own sound--it never occurred to us to mic the drums or the horns and we were plenty loud enough for the typical frat houses we played. Sound has come a long way since then!
BTW, I haven't decided what speakers I'd use for he M200t with the Mackie, I certainly wouldn't want to use the AR 2ax's for that. It's actually not easy to find decent small-enough PA speakers but maybe some small two way monitors would work. I might have to build them to get what I want. Thoughts on that welcome.