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Hello Everyone!

 

Just wanted to say hi from frigid Canada, introduce myself, and comment on what an intensely cool website this is!  I joined this site a couple months ago, so this is long overdue.

 

I am not really an audiophile, but I truly enjoy good sound.  Growing up in the seventies my Dad had music all over the house, pretty neat gear, and there were always stereo/hifi magazines to flip through.  I remember marveling back then at the Carver cube ads.  I thought they were so cool.  Somewhere about the mid seventies my Dad's best friend's wife evicted a pair of Ohm F's I guess because they took up too much space.  They ended up in my Dad's possession and a short time later he had a Phase Linear 400 amp and the matching preamp.   My Dad encouraged me to blast the music as long as I was careful.  Fast forward thirty years or so and my Dad's 2nd wife evicted the Ohms again.  This time they ended up in my basement!  That was almost ten years ago and the first thing I did was to acquire the first serious power amp I could find locally - a Hafler 500, with the DH-101 preamp.  I also scored a Marantz 1090, a Luxman CD player and I also found a pair of JBL Decade 16's that my neighbor put out in his trash.  One of the woofers fell out!!!  That took me all of about 5 minutes to fix, and what a great sounding pair of speakers they are.

 

In recent years I have been trying my hand at fixing up old gear.  Started by recapping and replacing all the jacks on the Hafler preamp (honestly, I could never hear any improvement).  After that I came across a basket case pair of 901s with a dead EQ that I restored from the ground up.  That was a very satisfying project.  Then I restored my brother's Hitachi Receiver (a 150W class G beast).  

 

Just this last December I realized I never was satisfied with the preamp work on the Hafler, and I got myself a stock C-1 control center.  OMG what a difference!!!  So that unit is currently controlling everything with the Hafler 500 driving the Ohms.  In the other end of my long basement, the Marantz drives the JBLs.  My vinyl sound fantastic through this rig.

 

I am currently on a mission to get my hands on a Carver amp.  I am totally lusting after one of the transfer function amps.  Top of list is the M-1.0 T.  I also would love to have a 1.5 T or an M-400T. Any of these I would take dead or alive (preferably dead but cosmetically good).   I go after every one I see, and get out-gunned every single time.  These beauties are certainly sought after!  The extent to which they have held their value can only serve as testament to the genius and ingenuity of Mr. Carver! 

 

Not sure if i will ever succeed in my quest, but I am sure enjoying the journey!  I am grateful to have found this awesome site, and look forward getting acquainted with you all!

 

Sincerely,

David

(aka Cool Ohm)

Ottawa, Canada

 

 

 

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Howdy David and welcome to the forum. Congrats on making your first post, and thanks for the great introduction. Hope you continue to enjoy your stay with us.

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Hi Dave, and welcome to Carver site. Great introduction and you'll find plenty of good advice here  regarding your restoration projects.

 

Pics will be requested. :D

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I should have known you guys would ask for pictures! 

 

Here are the before and after shots of my brother's SR-903.  It was grimed up with nicotine and coffee stains and all bulbs were burnt.  I converted everything to LED, but then I slipped with my probe when setting the idle current and severely fried the left channel.  Ended up replacing all the output trannies, several drivers, and some diodes - and of course did the same repairs on both channels.  The troubleshooting was tricky and took a long time - but it works great now.  My bro has an amazing vinyl collection and he is now blasting music in his new man cave with his cherished receiver.

 

I'll dig out some other project pics and post them this evening.  Happy Friday everyone!

 

David

Before.jpg

903.jpg

Edited by Cool Ohm
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Yes!  Thanks for asking.  There is a foam liner inside the upper portion of the cone that Ohm says they could never repair.   Oddly, those still appear intact on mine.  The suspension has been replaced on both drivers.  To me  the bass is terrific, but I feel they lack in the treble dept.  They are very powerful in the bass dept without any mushiness whatsoever - just outstanding bass.  They are very power hungry 4 ohm speakers. 

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I was looking for someone in Vancouver who reportedly was good at rebuilding these.  When I contacted the boutique where he used to work he unfortunately had passed.  The gent I was speaking to was very helpful and actually suggested I install a set of tweeters.  The thought of crossovers put me off.  Your active EQ idea is cool. 

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Welcome! I just bought a M-1.0t today and can't wait to get it home to hook it up! I'm going to run a vertically bi-amp system with the m-1.0t on the highs and a m-1.5t on the lows running through infinity il-40's!

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