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Hello all, I picked up a M-400t a few days ago and a C1 today. The M-400t was services by Nelion in 2022 (yeah). As I was researching the C1, I ran across info on the BillD mod. The mod info also lead me here. I'm excited to get started on the C1 updates,,, and I haven't even plugged it in yet.

Hi! My name is Brayden. Recently got introduced into the world of older sound tech from my dad since I do some light work with sound for film production. Joined to talk about and hopefully get some more insight about Carver gear, since my dad has a lot of it from back in the day!

Hello all, I'm Jason and i got bit by the vintage audio bug spring of 2025 when i watched SkyLabs audio's YT vid 'We Used To Love Them! What Changed?' I ended up with what was advertised as an mxr130 but it turned out to be the 150 and all it needed was the trim cap and the display glued back to the faceplate. So i got a hold of the circuits and concepts cap kit, performance regulator, and 1 replacement knob to do a good service to it. After all that i'm here wondering about a few hot components and already finding answers, very grateful forums like this with the info we need still exist! I am a YT content creator and you'll likely see at least 3 mxr units gone through and vids posted... eventually! The 150 and a hopefully easy fix 130, but also a 2000 that blows fuses on power up or at least that was the ebay description!

Here is the system as of about a month ago. It is tri-amped so that is why there is a lot of amps. The speakers are self built but designed and spec'd by Sigfried Linkwitz (Linkwitz-Reilly crossover fame). My father worked with him at Hewlett Packard long ago. They are the "Phoenix" open baffle loudspeakers. Linkwitz active crossover network, Adcom GFA 545 for the tweeters, GFA 545ii for the midranges, and now the restored Carver M400 for the woofers. An Outlaw Audio mono block for the Velodyne subwoofer, and then another Adcom GFA 7000 5 channel amp for the surrounds and center channel speakers. Outlaw Audio 7.1 preamp, Denon DP1100 (restored) with a Goldring E3 cartridge and Fosi phono amp. Then an Oppo DVD player handling the digital side. It has taken me over 20 years to get to this point. Built and put together on a budget as funds allowed. Just about everything bought used except for the loudspeaker system. Those I built and sourced all the drivers new. The sound is incredible. I have listened to a handful of truly high end systems in dedicated custom rooms and honestly, I think mine is in the same ballpark for a fraction of the cost. Linkwitz knows how to design speakers. Moving forward I will slowly (no rush now) be upgrading some of my components to higher end ones. I will still buy used or restored, let someone else swallow the depreciation. Let me know what you think.

Hi boffins I have a C-4000 and C-1 that need service and upgrades. I contacted Nelion and they were happy until I mentioned a transformer change from 120V to 240V. Is there anyone in the UK that would like to do this work. Looking to start September after hollibobs. Thanks

I was given a Carver system from my brother several years ago. I am finally in a place where I can dedicate time to setting it up and using it. This past week I set up the pre amp (sorry I am not at home to give specific model numbers), one of the amps, and the CD player. I hooked it up to an extra speaker I had just to see if it would all fire up. Everything worked except the CD player. It is a SD/A-360. The display does not work and the carousel does not open. After a little bit of time the whole unit makes several clicking sounds and then stops. I have always been interested in electronics. I did take a circuits class a long time ago but I would need a major refresher. I would like to see if I could find out what is wrong with the CD player. I have searched the internet but am unable to locate a pdf download of the service manual for this specific model. Does anyone have any advice on where to start or additional resources to use? Thank you in advance,

Greetings. I’ve picked up an M-200T and am going to build a budget system around it. (Pairing it with a Classe CP-35 pre that I also found for a smoking deal!) I’m aware that a refresh of the caps is likely in order. I’m in the Seattle area and would like this group’s suggestions on where to have that done. Thanks in advance for your help!

Hey everyone - glad to be a part of the community. Looking forward to reading through some of the posts and getting more knowledge of amplifiers and circuits. Build and repair amplifiers (notice I didn't day design) for almost 6 years now, which started with designing and building speakers about 15 years ago.

Good morning! I just found this forum and am glad to join. I have been building a higher end room and system now for going on 25 years, and doing it on a budget. While I have committed the cardinal sin of combining 2 channel audio with home theater, I am very happy with how it is turning out. Here is a brief overview of my system: Sources include a Outlaw Audio 990 preamp, Oppo DVD/CD player, and a Denon turntable Output side gets complicated: Linkwitz designed 3 way active crossover feeding two Adcom GFA 545 and one Carver M500 amps into self built, but Linkwitz designed "Phoenix" loudspeakers. Velodyne sub (modified) powered by an Oppo monoblock amp, then an Adcom GFA 7000 5 channel amp powering my center/surrounds. I recently reconditioned my M500 amp with all new caps and other related parts and she is sounding fantastic. I would like to pick up an older Carver Sonic Holography generator to add into my mains at some point. I will add photos once I have that privelage.

Good morning fellow Carver fans. I have been a Carver owner since the mid 80's when i purchased my first Carver gear, a C-2 pre-amp and a M1.5t amp during my college years. I had them put away for close to 20 years and within the past 2-3 years have started to re-assemble a listening room as the kids have all left the house and i can claim use of the bonus room now. I have had the M1.5t fully service from Nelion, and have acquired quite a bit of other pieces over the past year. I now own 3 M1.5t's, 4 TFM6'c, AV405 C-1, C-2, CT-7, Ct-17, CT26V TX-2, TX-12, and a Sunfire Ultimate Receiver. Some of this gear needs some attention and some work great. I have replaced all the caps on two of the tfm-6c's and will be doing the other two soon. I am new to repair work, but i am not afraid to try, and I enjoy the learning experience. I have downloaded the service manuals for most of the pieces I have and have referenced them for the repairs i have done so far. I want to thank each of you for the support you have given me to this point, and welcome your input. I am currently tinkering with the CT-7 ass the power switch intermittently does not seem to work, and i currently have the CT-17 as the display is quite dim. the CT-17 is a nightmare to disassemble, but again, i don't mind the challenge or learning experience. i have been reading about the typical issues with these units display problems and will continue to chase this down. Have a great day, and crank it up to 11!

Hi everyone I'm Mark from florida and I have owned carver since the early 80's and most recently recapped my C1 preamplifier and M-500t amplifier and I'm currently in the process of restoring a M-500t I recently obtained. The M-500t I most recently recapped took me most of the day to remove the large power supply caps that were clued in place and get everything cleaned up. I have a great appreciation for service technicians. Take Care and be safe out there.

Thank you for allowing me on this site. I've been a fan of Carver Corp since I bought a A-760X in the mid 90's. I now have a M400, 2 M500-T's, and my original A-760X. I also have a C-4000, C-1, and CT-17 pre-amps. All have been restored and upgraded by Nelion Audio in the last couple years. I joined for somewhat selfish reasons, I wanted to download an owners manual for my C-1, but looking over this site I see a lot of good comments and information on all Bob Carver products.

I'm a huge fan of Carver equipment.

Anymore, 99.9% of my music is local digital and served up from Lyrion Music server. I can either use the jump list on the left or the scroll bar on the right. No more flipping through vinyl or CD's, they're all safely stored away.

Holy Crap, doing some exploring I found the service manual on this site. Thank you for this resource. Any other help would be appreciated. I feel like I have no clue what I am doing but I know how to use a multimeter and want to dig into this. It's already not working so I don't feel like I have anything to lose.

I’ve been dying to try a pair of these with the 285… You may, now, have an excuse to invest in a pair… 😉

Reason for the join, is this forum was mentioned to me from DIYAudio.com, where I posted for some help on a Carver A-220 and setting the bias. A friend found a working, decent condition A-220 at an Estate sale and asked me to look it over before he hooked it up to any speakers. It all checks out, all original (it appears), except for a 14-gauge plug, although it's still only 2-prong. I checked the repository and there is a Specs Sheet and Owner's Manual, but no schematic or Service Manual for this model amplifier. Like I said, it works (listening to it as I write this post) and sounds great. I only want to check what the Bias procedure is, because when I check the voltage over the emitter resistors I get 0-1mV and the heatsinks are barely above room temperature after 2 hours of playing music. I would expect there to be 10-20 degree rise over ambient after that long. So mainly want to see if this design requires special bias procedure, and what the voltage measurement at what points is correct for factory spec. Thanks and appreciate any help or comments.

Welcome to TheCarverSite, @roryhamilton. I take it you are in the UK? I don't have an answer for you on the power supply change to 240..., maybe someone else here might have an old EX (export) unit for parts you could use. ...another question: Are we to assume you already have a US C-1 and C-4000 that is made for 120v? And you want to convert it for UK use? What about using a transformer, and keeping it at 120v? That might be easier to achieve.

Most of my HT power is Carver. A 500t MKII runs the L & R, another 500t MKII runs the center (steering mode, not bridged), a Sunfire Theater Grand runs the base layer surrounds (4 speakers x 200 Sunfire watts - overkill I know), and a Parasound Z-12 running 8 of its channels bridged to 4 running the 4 Atmos speakers at 100 watts each. Then there’s the subs - the 2 SVS SB4000 each have a 1,200 watt amp, and the 2 Velodyne DD18 subs each have a 1,250 watt amp. The 4 subs pressurize the room quite well…;-) I am running the Marantz SR6015 receiver as a processor. I didn’t see any reason to move up the line (SR7015 or SR8015), because I didn’t need the 2 extra amp channels (9 vs 11) nor did I need more powerful amp channels, as ALL my amplification is via separate amps. There are a lot of different options for Atmos channels. While ceiling mount is best, high on the front wall is pretty good, and even the “aimed & ceiling reflected” Atmos speakers that sit on top of the front mains present a realistic image.

Hi everyone, it's been a few days since my last post, but I have some news to share. I finally decided to do two things. You might remember that I suspected the tweeters' ferrofluid was the problem. One of those things was to disassemble the tweeters to verify that the ferrofluid was indeed completely dry. I cleaned them as the tutorials indicate. The voice coil and domes appeared to be in perfect condition. I bought the ferrofluid on eBay. It hasn't arrived yet. The second thing I did was remove the crossover and find that it had been completely rebuilt and modified with some audiophile-grade capacitors. It's very possible this work was done in Argentina. I'll show you photos of what I found. Overall, they sound fantastic, but the tweeters are a bit recessed and dull. If it's not the ferrofluid problem, then I should check the crossover.

Balok, thank you for your reply, i will check the actual unit capacitors and go from there.

Yes, please start a new thread. Also, it helps if you tells us a little bit about your skill level. The service manual is in our database HERE . The values for the power supply capacitors are shown in the schematic. It is always best to look at the capacitors in the unit before you order. There are often differences between the schematic and the actual unit on your workbench. You also need to measure diameters, heights and lead spacing. The power supply of the CT-17 runs hot so it is wise to use 105C caps.

Welcome! There's a couple of places; Home - Carver Audio Repair Service - Hi-Tech Audio LTD Nelion Audio - Authorized Carver Repair Can't speak to lead times but both warrantee their work so I doubt you could go wrong with either one.

Alan Parsons - Can't Look Down

Thank you for the warm welcomes! My pops has a couple of things; currently out of the house so I only have a picture of one right now, which is this 5 disc carousel. Not sure what the specific model is? Still very cool though. Otherwise, a couple of amps and preamps. He's encouraged me to sell/trade some of the ones he's not using to trade up, so I might even look into that too honestly. Happy to be here!

Euge Groove, The Phoenix was released on July 17, 2026. Euge Groove’s album The Phoenix is a deeply personal reflection on recovery and renewal following heart surgery. Blending smooth jazz with emotional restraint and lyrical saxophone work, the record captures a period of physical and creative rebuilding. Tracks like Heart of Gold and Those Night Alone highlight a patient, expressive sound shaped by lived experience, while Groove’s long-standing collaborations and signature tone reaffirm his place in contemporary instrumental music. You can read the rest of the review here...

Welcome to TheCarverSite - Check out threads on that CD model..., there are a few that show how others have fixed their units... Use the SEARCH function (upper right corner of the home screen) to find information and past repair threads on that CD player Here's a repair thread that I shared a while ago, and there are others. Find one that seems to address the symptoms you are observing. If you can, please start a thread in the Source Units for CD's, and describe your fix. These past threads that may help you are from others thinking ahead to benefit future members. I'm going to guess, based on the age, and the clicking, that your first steps are going to be: a) unplug the unit. b) take the cover off c) look for and replace belts (they either dry up, or turn to goo, with age...) Then power up, and see if the display comes on. You will love this gear! Carver audio, and this CD player are very nice units.

There were a lot of speakers at Axpona last year that I wished I could have heard the RAM through them. 😁

Check out this thread.

BobTFM35, thanks for letting me know, i will take your advice and introduce myself and start a new thread.

Welcome to the Carver Site!! Nice selection of equipment that you have. For the Carver Sonic Holography generator , C-9, I would contact a member here @4krow . He may have something in the works as he restores and sells them.

@Frankthehammer I don't think you will get a response from "Jeff CT-17" . If you check his profile you will see the last time he visited the site was Dec of 2023. You might do better in starting a new topic in the Preamp Repair sub forum for this. https://thecarversite.com/forum/63-preamp-repair/ Also, introduce yourself in The Welcome Shop. https://thecarversite.com/forum/142-the-welcome-shop-please-read-first/ @Sk1Bum @wrf @AndrewJohn

Thank you. I saw that Carver Audio is in Washington State and that will probably be where I take it. I was just curious if there was a unknown gem of a repair shop a bit closer to home. I love the Hood River area, so heading to Stevenson isn't an errand I'll mind performing.

Lee Jones, Smooth Jazz Grooves Volume 1 was released on May 1, 2026. "Lee Jones is a multi-instrumentalist. Playing woodwinds (flute, clarinet and alto sax), guitar, bass guitar, keys, composer and occasional vocals. His self produced music features him playing multiple instruments on a recording." You can read the rest of the review here...

They would be fun to see live

Welcome to the site!!!

Welcome to the Carver Site!! I'm kind of reading behind the lines, sounds like these units were maybe operating in a 120v location then they moved to the UK? On the C-1 have you taken a look inside? Some have a switch (SW15) near the power supply. Switch in question - Black item, far right center below white card on top of power supply. If the C-1 has this switch already installed then maybe at least the C-1 has a chance of being restored and upgraded by Nelion. The type of plug will also need to be looked at. What type do both have? US or European? As for the C-4000 I have no Idea if it has a similar switch. While not the most elegant of options it does sound like a Step-up transformer might be the first option? Maybe. When you get 5 or more likes please post some pictures.

Finally getting around to playing a batch of records I picked up at a 2nd hand store in lil ol Aberdeen, WA. The owner of the shop has a good idea for good quality recordings! I pay a little bit more ($8-12), but every single piece has been near mint in terms of media quality. Here are two pieces I listened to tonight:

Play some piano music..., like Horowitz. That will ferret out any "buzzing" in the ribbons. If they don't buzz, enjoy them. To rebuild and replace the magnets in their proper position (they don't get "demagnetized" they just need to be held in place during assembly with a special jig that only one guy I know, has one - that is @sea, Ed Atkins, here on theCarverSite. He rebuilds them with new kapton (the panel material) and the magnets replaced. Rebuilding Ribbons is NOT a DIY job - taking them apart will result in a pile of powerful magnets, and kapton..., don't attempt. The "jig" holds "everything" in place for assembly - and can't be hacked together in a home shop. As for the minor flaws in the kapton - if it doesn't affect sound when you play intense music (like Horowitz Piano) - don't worry about it. If punctured, and makes buzzing - then consider asking Ed for an estimate. ... Curious..., Why do you think the drivers need to be "RECONED"? typically, just a new foam surround is all that is needed - cheap, and DIY-able. Reconing is usually only recquired after catestrophic and malicious damage.

So Atmos then requires at least 9.1, it seems. I have the Marantz SR 5014 model doing 7.1 now about 6 years old. It sends the main L and R to a TFM 4.0 driving a pair of NHT 2.6i speakers. The other 5 channels are fed through an AV-705x feeding my front-L&R surrounds high up on the left and right walls 6 feet from the back wall, aimed down to the sweet spot, and then feeding my rear-L&R surrounds behind the sitting area sweet spot, also high-up, but aimed down to the sweet spot. The SR 5014 is connected to a Samsung flat screen via E-ARC HDMI so i can control everything with the 7 button Samsung remote (very cool how this works so well!). Oh, My surround speakers and center were a Boston surrounds I picked up when Boston was still making good speakers..., they are a "system" to support that configuration, or a 5.1. I have a single sub - a Carver Knight Shadow - the rare and elusive Carver-branded version of a Sunfire Super Junior (I have 4 of these..., LoL). I think that the best thing about the Marantz is the Audessy setup..., gets thing close for my room (which is wildly non-standard) Then, I usually tweak it - mostly tweaking the Center channel to amplify dialog/speaking for movies. The above config is in a "den" style room off of our kitchen that we use daily for most TV use. I should say that I have a second AV setup, it is showing it's age - denon receiver (hate it), and fabulous Sonus Faber speaker setup (LOVE these!!)..., description on that setup for another day - I am hoping to re-outfit it with another Marantz receiver, through a 2 channel and 7 channel Sunfire amplification. Located in the man cave combo bourbon-bar and is less used.

Es porque han pasado exactamente 30 años, así que no creo que sea tan extraño. Hola a todos, han pasado algunos días desde mi última publicación, pero tengo noticias que compartir. Finalmente decidí hacer dos cosas. Quizás recuerden que sospechaba que el problema era el ferrofluido de los tweeters. Una de ellas fue desmontar los tweeters para verificar que el ferrofluido estuviera completamente seco. Los limpié siguiendo los tutoriales. La bobina móvil y las cúpulas parecían estar en perfectas condiciones. Compré el ferrofluido en eBay. Todavía no ha llegado. El segundo que hice fue desmontar el crossover y descubrí que había sido completamente reconstruido y modificado con condensadores de alta fidelidad. Es muy posible que este trabajo se haya realizado en Argentina. Les mostraré fotos de lo que encontré. En general, suenan fantásticos, pero los tweeters están un poco apagados y sin brillo. Si no es el problema del ferrofluido, entonces debería revisar el crossover.

More pictures please.

Hello, I purchased my CT-17 with AV-64 new in the 80s. After sitting in its box for a few decades, a lot of moving for a while, I pulled it out and the tuner display would not light nor would any of the buttons work. There is intermittent function when holding remote buttons down. Based on other sites I replaced all power supply caps and checked for bad solder joints. These had no effect. I found that if I unground the circuit board with the tuner, the tuner functions works. Not sure what this means. Wondering if anyone has run across this before? Electronics are not my strong suite. Thank you.

Blue Oyster Cult Cities On Flame 🔥

Hello, just joined the group. I've had Carver components in the past and now I'm back with a few components/gear for my new system. Carver SDA 410 CD player, CT 3 Preamp and a custom Bose 800 EQ that has now been installed in modified Carver DPL 33 chasis. My amp is a Adcom GFA 555 at 200 wpc. Speakers are a set of BOSE 800 Professional speakers (refurbished). Things are still in progress I just finished the BOSE 800 EQ project. I'm waiting on a replacement power switch for my ADCOM amp. I just updated the LED from red to blue. https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Rs5P0nIFVJTK8ObBlmwpgPrvNnZwV_u/view?usp=drive_link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A5hTAw1FyBVeODHNxoJLaraelz844KW9/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bu_4ywg9n8jp7oNnXXOdGiq58vyyWyEn/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/19g87woP-XjSIXff55R-ELt-di4I8i8ev/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/14sS4aK3rStDP5dSrK6dXi2LuvcvoM3Kq/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bmaWzHK2gA9JVJPlIQ4E8BBqfezme1-4/view?usp=sharing