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Hello from Toole, Utah


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Thank you for accepting my application!  I have been meaning to come here for several months now, as I was sent here by another member to read-up on the Carver C1, and a modification called the Bill D. 

 

Early last winter, I was selling a subwoofer on the local classifieds.  I received a call within a few hours from a guy saying he was interested, but was about 45 minutes away, and couldn’t make it out for 2 days (Toole is about 1/2 hour from Salt Lake).  I agreed to hold it for him, and he came out as promised 2 days later. When he got here, I had the sub hooked up to demonstrate, and we listened for a couple minutes to a disc set he brought that is actually from this very site.  I was blown away by the tracks he played, and said as much. He insisted that I keep the CD set, as he said he had another. I love the set, and use it a lot.  

 

When we went to get the box for the sub, he saw my Polk SDA 2 speakers, and asked if they were for sale. When I said no, he asked why I wasn’t using them. I showed him that 2 of the speaker wire nuts were broken, and that I didn’t have the cable connecting the 2 speakers together any more. At his insistence, we removed the plates that hold the speaker nuts, and he methodically marked and removed all the wires. He said he could fix me up, and get my Polks back up and running, so I trusted him to take the plates.  2 weeks later, he was back at my house. He had replaced ALL or the speaker wire nuts with beautiful gold ones, AND made a new cable to connect the speakers together!  He installed all of this, and helped me move the speakers into position.  We (mostly him, as I am not up to too much of that any more) got everything hooked up, and I was speechless. That wonderful Polk sound I remembered was back!  I have listened to them almost every day since.  And on top of all that, he wouldn’t let me pay him for any of it - he said he already had all the parts, and it was an easy job. 

 

We talked a little bit about the Polk sound, and he said what if I told you there was an even greater audio genius than Mr Polk? That of course Mr Carver. He told me that Carver made the Polk SDA sound into his preamps instead of the speaker, so the effect could be used on many other speakers.  So here I am, looking at the C1.  I have a feeling this is going to be a fun place to visit, and I thank you again for accepting me. 

 

Brian

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Welcome to CS, @Bwest. If the person you mention is from CS, most likely it is @Daddyjt. Either way, you are (were?) in good hands.

 

I have several C1s, including one listed in the FS listings on this site. The various faceplates are

 

Silver C1...

 

 

 

g2SFYA4.jpg

 

Anthracite C1/Black C11

 

Ox6oKYF.jpg

 

Edited by loner_t
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Welcome.jpg

 

Welcome to the group @Bwest!  I agree with @loner_t that the fellow you met was very likely @Daddyjt - between the speaker addiction and the insistance to dive into fixing your Polks - his talents in that respect are truly amazing - he rebuilt my C1 & M1.0t.  That said, there are a number of members from the SLC area who would no doubt would do what they could to help you get sorted out.

 

If you haven't found it, there is also a very active Polk speaker group as well, and there are several folks, here that share membership.

 

You can definitely do worse that an updated Carver Preamp/Poweramp system - especially at the price.

 

Let us know your musical interests, and at some point we'd love to see pictures of what you have - whatever you are running.  

 

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Welcome to Carversite, Polk and carver are a great combo!  I have  SDA-1b’s being fed by my carver Crimson 275, Carver TFM-45 before that!

 

ascalways enjoy the site, turn up the volume and have great time!

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Welcome Bwest. We're glad you're hear! ;)

 

A BillD modified C1 Is an excellent choice. So is a C-11, C-4000, or a 4000t. They're all great choices, and they can all be improved upon a great deal by some very talented folks that hang out here.

 

How about posting some pics of your Polks and the rest of your gear in the Members Systems area? We like all kinds of audio gear, and we all like pics. :D 

 

So kick your shoes off, pop the top on your favorite beverage, turn it up to 11, and welcome aboard.

 

giphy.gif

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Welcome aboard @Bwest!!!

 

Glad to have another fellow Utahn aboard here.  I'm not too far from you up here in West Bountiful. 

 

This is a terrific bunch of folks up in here and best of luck finding that BillD modded C1,  they're something else.

 

Turbo

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Wow - you have a great welcoming committee here! Thank you. 

 

I am entirely new to Carver. I remember hearing about the name back when I was younger, but have never owned any of it. Right now I have a receiver running the Polks. After reading some here, it sounds like I need an amplifier.  I have a feeling this is going to get expensive.

 

I am confused after trying to read about the Bill D changeover, and I am embarrassed to say that I do not really understand what it does?

 

I will have to get some pictures of my sound area, but I warn you it is not at all a man cave. I had to sacrifice all of my say in the decoration of the room to be able to have the Mrs approve of large speakers, formerly Bose 601, and now even bigger the Polks.

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4 hours ago, Bwest said:

Wow - you have a great welcoming committee here! Thank you. 

 

I am entirely new to Carver. I remember hearing about the name back when I was younger, but have never owned any of it. Right now I have a receiver running the Polks. After reading some here, it sounds like I need an amplifier.  I have a feeling this is going to get expensive.

 

I am confused after trying to read about the Bill D changeover, and I am embarrassed to say that I do not really understand what it does?

 

I will have to get some pictures of my sound area, but I warn you it is not at all a man cave. I had to sacrifice all of my say in the decoration of the room to be able to have the Mrs approve of large speakers, formerly Bose 601, and now even bigger the Polks.

 

I'm a relatively recent arrival, and  admit I was quite taken, aback at the welcome I got. I can honestly say, the folks here are every bit as great as they see, and more.

 

I had always been enamored of Carver gear in my younger years, but I always saw it as out of reach.  Until very recently, I was running off a non-Carver receiver, too.  No worries what you run - one bonus of this group is they are not sobs, or they hide it well.  :D  As for expensive, yes, and no.  You may spend a bit, bt I can promise you will be hard pressed to get better gear (and sound) without going to a system 10X the price.  Carver equipment, as I learned, was not hugely expensive in it's day - it just sounded like it was.  And now, with many people selling off 2-channel systems for surround sound, it's surprisingly cost effective.  The one gotcha is that due to it's age, it will need to be recapped, etc. - there are lots of folks here who can do that for a surprisingly decent price, if you aren't one to tackle it yourself. 

 

That brings us to the BillD update for the C1.  In layman's terms, it involves updating many of the internal components of the already great C1 preamp, with much newer, quieter and better components.  It goes way beyond a Cap-Job, and brings the C1 up to date to rival or best many state of the art preamps, for sound.  There are also some other ad-on updates as well, that the tech's here can tell you more about, but it's a way to get a high-end preamp for very reasonable $'s.

 

You will soon be overwhelmed by OCCD - it's insidious, addictive, and unavoidable, so just embrace it.  I was happy with a C-9 SH unit, until I got bitten.  3 more Carver devices, and 2 major overhauls later, I still watch for bargains everywhere.  :$  Take our time, and enjoy the quest.  Until then, enjoy the music.

 

Don't worry about your system's home.  We're (mostly) human here (aside from a few, self-declared aliens).  We mostly have or have had spouses, so the compromise for marital bliss is truly appreciated.

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14 hours ago, Bwest said:

[...] I had to sacrifice all of my say in the decoration of the room to be able to have the Mrs approve of large speakers, formerly Bose 601, and now even bigger the Polks.

 

Not an uncommon thing around here. Most know that it takes "balance."

 

BTW, I believe that the original Bose 601's are the best Bose speakers ever designed. The rest are too much hype, and not enough delivery. I still have my pair. My son has them on his kit Tube amp, we built last Christmas.

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On 8/22/2019 at 6:44 PM, Bwest said:

Wow - you have a great welcoming committee here! Thank you. 

 

I am entirely new to Carver. I remember hearing about the name back when I was younger, but have never owned any of it. Right now I have a receiver running the Polks. After reading some here, it sounds like I need an amplifier.  I have a feeling this is going to get expensive.

 

I am confused after trying to read about the Bill D changeover, and I am embarrassed to say that I do not really understand what it does?

 

I will have to get some pictures of my sound area, but I warn you it is not at all a man cave. I had to sacrifice all of my say in the decoration of the room to be able to have the Mrs approve of large speakers, formerly Bose 601, and now even bigger the Polks.

 

It is awesome to see another new face here. Welcome to the nut house.  ?

 

The BillD modded C-1 has several things changed to help it sound just that much better than stock - much improved op-amps, metal film resistors in the signal path, better quality caps in the audio path, MLCC caps, the phono input capacitance is changed to better match today's cartridges, the headphone circuit is modified a bit, etc. Bill took a logical, deliberate look at the unit as a piece of electronic gear and said "What do I have access to today that can make a measurable, listenable (if that's a word?) improvement over an already well designed pre-amp? His results speak for themselves. Probably the biggest improvement most folks report isn't audible in a sense - it is how quiet the unit is with no signal. Hiss, hum, etc. is astonishingly low or non-existent.

 

A few others here have added other physical design improvements & other electrical modifications (improved RCA jacks, better feet, better cover screws, balanced outputs, improved power supply, remote volume control, etc.) and just made it that much better & user friendly. The results have been measured and reported here on the site and there is tons of documentation on how to do many of these mods yourself available here as well.

 

Please don't be shy - ask questions. No haters here - we won't allow it. This is truly one of the best places you could choose to hang your hat in cyberspace and we are happy you are here.

 

Now post some pictures of your gear so we can all feel a little better about our own WAF compromises. ?  ?  ? 

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Welcome to the site, Brian.

What sources's do you use for music, LP vinyl, CD, DVD, Streaming, other ?

What genre of bands and artists do you enjoy listening to ? 

Stick around and hang out for a while, we got a great bunch of folks here.......... 

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Hey Brian, glad you finally made it here!  I remember my trip(s) out to your place well. How are the Polks holding up? Did you ever look into the RDO 194 tweeter upgrades I told you about?

 

as for a C1, I’ve got you covered. In fact, I’ve got a backup one with the BillD mods we can slip into your system, and you can audition it for as long as you like (it’s just collecting dust at my place!).

 

PM me your number (I can’t find it in my phone any more, from last year), and we can chat.

 

welcome again!

 

PS - that Klipsch sub is still in the box, lol??

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