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Greetings everyone. I'm new here and definitely like what I've seen thus far. In my retirement I've been able to pursue repair/refurb of electronic equipment for myself, friends and neighbors. I've worked on a handful of amps, pre-amps, turntables, cassette decks, boomboxes and speakers. I like working on and listening to two channel equipment the most. Very satisfying to be using test & measurement equipment again, and soldering too. My bench currently has a Carver TDR-2400 cassette deck which I am cleaning up. 😀Happy to be here! -Steve

Hey folks, Old timer here saying hello. I was a member here many years ago but I think my account was purged when I wasn’t active for a while. Most of my involvement here centered around a pair of Amazing Plats that I was trying to source new ribbons for…. Which never happened and the speakers were sold. Later I played with a pair of Originals, which lasted a while before being replaced by a more manageable box speaker. (Picture attached). My gear gets changed around fairly frequently, stuff comes and goes at a scary rate. While I’ve owned Carver gear on and off over the years, all I have presently is an old CT7 that never gets used and a little Crimson 75 that I picked up a couple weekends ago that’s in need of a repair. Anyway, howdy and have a good weekend. Carl

Hello all, I'm probably not a typical user in the respect that my hearing (often plagued by tinnitus) is not good enough to distinguish stellar audio from good audio. However I can distinguish good audio from cr4p audio. And I'm fan of broadcast radio, both FM Band and AM Band. No one listens to broadcast radio---especially the AM band---for the audio quality of the broadcast, and as a result most tuners do not put a lot of effort into the quality of their signal tuning---especially on the AM band. There was an exception, the Carver TX-11a/b. I do not currently own one but I have heard their reception and even I can tell the difference in quality. I don't list to radio for the quality audio, but that doesn't mean I should settle for mediocre. Anyway, my current tuner (an inexpensive Yamaha R-S201) is starting to show signs it may not last much longer. The remote works perfectly, but on the unit itself, one of the input buttons actually triggers the Treble. Maybe a bug is shorting a contact and a can of air would fix it, but anyway I decided that when I see a Carver TX-11a or TX-11b that doesn't look abused and is being sold at what I can afford *not until after Christmas, no one contact me with one* I just might pick it up. Of course a TX-11a/b is just a tuner, it also needs an amp, but that I'll think about later. So that's why I registered. I know Carver is mostly tube products now (and looks to be among the best for that as well) but I suspect when I do find one, if I have any questions I'm more likely to find knowledgeable resources here.

There's a well-used copy on Amazon for about $200, but here's a PDF of the whole book that I came across a while back. Brilliant stuff. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bddkZXU4MWiHNqfYn-IwBDwJIT8Q_9Y2/view?usp=sharing

Hello all. Steven Dean Jackson here. I used to go by Staticvar back in the day. I was a moderator at one time under the Old Guard. Nice to see familiar names here. I’ll keep you posted and check in for new stories and ideas. ✌️

This is a conversation with Bob Carver about my concern for factions within the hobby cannibalizing what remains from the inside out. J. Clark - Bob, some of what I see within the hobby is disturbing and not healthy for the industry. It looks like it's being harmed from within. This is what I see. On one side, we have companies selling snake-oil for high prices, taking advantage of people with more money than knowledge, making a joke out of the technical side of the industry. Even the magazines are describing chocolaty sounding power cords for $1000s of dollars. Bob - Really! I haven't picked up an audio magazine in years, maybe I should. J. Clark - Honestly, Bob it's crazy what is going on. J. Clark - Then on the other side we have measurement sites that claim the best bench test number equates to highest fidelity. The idea sounds good and is easy to sell to people who don't know the difference. Better number, better sound mentality, similar to tubes vs solid sate. Solid state measures better.. That being said, most of the greatest designers in audio like Carver, Curl, King, Pass, Rowland and others, that have truly advanced the state of the art over lifetimes of research, are being discredited because they stayed focused on hi fidelity, over chasing lab equipment level specifications. It's an easy sell. It's math. Numbers don't lie. $999 and you can hear the best sound the industry can produce. It sounds science based right. I've worked with many great engineers and the art is in the choice of compromises. I'm not a designer but I'm assuming if you prioritize improving measurements you will compromise in other areas. There is 'no free lunch' in other engineering disciplines. Is that true in audio design as well? Bob - Of course it's true. I thought we had established long ago that measurements are tools and not goals, but I guess not.. J. Clark - It's an easy sell. All it takes is $999 and everything else is overpriced and not state of the art, as reported in reviews of the best designers, time after time. Bob - Usually this happens due to chasing marketing goals instead of the designers priorities. Sometimes it happens when companies are sold. It's easy for marketing to sit back and call out specs, 'give me this number and give me that number' it helps sales and the designers just give them what they want. J. Clark - So it's good marketing but can force compromises in the designers sonic priorities. Bob - That's right. J. Clark - I talk to people every day and there seems to be a hunger for the truth, so I'm thankful for these talks. Bob - Well we can give them the truth from my decades of working in audio. Send me the questions ahead and I can do a better job answering. J. Clark - This is great, Bob. We will do it every week.

@Anymouse Welcome to the site! The demographics of the members here suggest you are not alone in your hearing degradation I listen to FM in my home office. There is something nostalgic about it to me. Especially around the holidays. I have owned the TX-11 series and they are fantastic tuners. They were replaced, in my system, by a Phase Linear Model 5100 Series Two. It does a very good job of pulling in the weakest channels in my area. It has an extremely fast response time as well.

Hi there. First post on the forum. I've got an issue with my 6200 and was looking for some troubleshooting tips. I've had the amp for a few months and the phono preamp works just fine with my turntable. I recently added a cassette deck and CD player and found that all the other inputs (CD, Aux, etc.) do not work. I use the tape out (RCA to 3.5mm) with a small headphone tube amp and that also works fine. Has anyone encountered this or a similar situation before? Anyone have any tips or advice they could share? Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Like quit making it less painful

Found this interesting, funny, challenging, creative..., Things to do with scratched old vinyl.

Hi all. I'm here searching info and possibly parts to help get a MXR 130 back to it's former glory.

Thanks! For the AM antenna, I do have a plan. The cheap small loop antennas that come with receivers just don't work where we have our receivers, there are just way too many local sources of interference (I'm a computer nerd) but I do have a plan. The cheap small loop antennas do actually work in the sewing room where there's a nice big open window but they don't work anywhere else in the house. There's a company (I won't name it, don't want to seem like a spammer) that makes some 75Ω coaxial stuff compatible with both the medium wave (500kHz to 1700kHz) band as well as VHF band. I'm using their amplifier and splitters currently to distribute FM signal to four wall jacks. They make an antenna but it's not ideal for me, neighbors don't want a large outdoor antenna and it's too tall for inside the attic above the garage. What I'm planning to do is make a 48" perimeter small loop antenna, hexagon shape (most make square shape but I worry about bend radius) and experiment with both 22AWG and 26AWG with different number of turns until I find the best combination of wire gauge and turns - willing to make two of the antennas if the combination best for high end of medium wave is different from low end of medium wave. No capacitor, it doesn't need to resonate. There's a vendor on AliBaba that makes (or at least sells) a 1:1 BalUn for medium wave. Their BalUn has 50Ω output on the unbalanced side but I suspect I can just put an adapter to 75Ω F-jack on it, I'm not *that* worried about the impedance mismatch, that matters but more for transmitting and I understand it takes both a scope and wave generator to find the actual impedance of a small-loop antenna anyway, none of the equations out there are very real-world accurate. If I find different AWG/turns work better on higher kHz vs lower kHz, then I'll put together some bandpass filters and use a signal combiner, I found one specifically designed for medium-frequency band that some Ham operators use, and I can get it in 75Ω. The company I won't mention does make a band separator which I'm hoping works in reverse to combine AM and FM (I suspect it's just a low-pass filter on AM and high-pass filter on FM) so that the antenna signal can be distributed along with FM to the four wall jacks. I seem to be the only one in the house who is interested in AM but I want it usable at any of the wall jacks. That un-named company also makes an AM twin-lead adapter but I suspect that it's just red wire = core and black wire = shield as they don't advertise it as a BalUn or Transformer. So with the receiver grounded already from the coax to FM jack on the receiver, I probably could just strip a piece of coax and just connect that to the AM antenna jack on a receiver. Anyway whether one AM antenna or two that get combined, if they work, they are going into the attic above the garage where there aren't many local sources of interference and where the FM antenna is and hopefully will allow AM reception to work at any of the four existing coaxial jacks I put in for radio. That's all hypothetical, as I work on the antennas I may learn and change the plan, but I will figure out something that works. I know AM over 75Ω is possible with the right parts, so long as one is careful how the coax run is laid. Hopefully I was. I'm not an Electrical Engineer but freshman and software years of college way back when, I was an EE major until I discovered math was my actual love. So I suspect I can figure something out. And even though the coaxial network is all indoors, it is still grounded. Interestingly, my speakers used to occasionally pop especially when I changed inputs on the receiver. After grounding the FM coax (which I did just to reduce interference) that popping stopped, I guess the occasional speaker popping was static buildup inside the receiver that now has another discharge path. My current receiver is not exactly the worlds best receiver... EDIT - that FM antenna you referenced just happens to be the one I'm using for FM, or very similar. Classic Halo folded dipole design. I can confirm it works extremely well, much better reception than the advertised 35 miles. As an experiment, I also hooked it up to the TV and it gets all the same channels as our ClearStream 2Max. Reception for UHF isn't quite as good, some minor pixelation, but its gets them. It does however do a better job at FM than the ClearStream 2Max.

The Rolling Stones Angie (LIVE in Stockholm)

Dominic Miller - Clandestin, on thenew album Vagabond

wow 3 home runs. good job. Rodriquez is unbeatable.

Here is a picture of a recent production board. The AC filament wires were move to the top side of the board. The missing Zobel network prevents oscillation if the amp is powered up without a speaker load connected. It's important not to power it up as Wayne said. Any parts the amp needs are available. We have one here in Rockford with a bad power transformer. The owners son was running multiple 4 ohm speakers on each channel and the trans eventually failed shorted. With the fuse covers missing and the smoked resistors, I'm guessing the power trans is bad, worst case. If Greg is isn't interested or if the wait is too long, you can send it to Bob Carver in Rockford for repair. Jim 815 985 3557

Hi, Trying to learn what I can about upgrading My C-1 interested I more information on the BillD upgrade. I also just squired a 100-pm and a 300-pm that look like the same amplifiers. Are there any good upgrades for these amps? Thanks

Have 3 Carver PT-1250 amps, 2 went out, fans are no longer operational and suspect they stopped functioning prior to the units. Wasn't aware or thinking of the fans failing since they were on low and not really audible, they most likely stopped and the unit over heated. Has anyone experienced a similar issue and what was the point of failure besides the fan (i.e., output op-amps/transistors)?🥲

@Sk1Bum Three Rippington vinyl albums are ordered !!! Thanks !!!

P.M & Wings Band On The Run

The Alan Parsons Project Eye In The Sky

Fleetwood Mac Little Lies

Eagles Life In The Fast Lane

Dolly Parton, Rockstar was released on November 17, 2023. "Parton’s own songs are great and her voice is still strong and characterful, but it often doesn’t suit these rock covers aided by stars from Paul McCartney to Lizzo. Dolly Parton has done it all. She has asserted her primacy over the reactionary forces of Nashville’s music industry, sold 100m records, written umpteen classic songs, broken into Hollywood, opened her own amusement park and had a species of lichen, a Soviet battle tank and a cloned sheep named in her honour. It’s a delightful, fully deserved state of affairs, but it comes with a problem attached: what do you do next? Her 49th solo album attempts to answer this question. Rockstar came about when Parton was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She first declined to be inducted, saying she was a country artist, then reconsidered, announcing she would record a rock album to justify her inclusion." You can read the rest of the review here... For me, this album is a letdown. Don't get me wrong, Dolly Parton is an incredibly talented performer, whether it be singing, acting, or folksy humor. I just like her country albums much more, and I have to agree with the reviewer's first sentence.

Pretty dang cool

Those are a gold mine. Thanks @3M_Audio.

Welcome @Fidelity First! While some searching the forums will find you some other MX130 service info, what exactly is going on with your unit and what parts are you looking for? And I assume you've already found the service manuals on the site here?

Oh. And be aware that this amp took a tremendous beating at the hands of Amir and others on ASR. Bottom line is that they didn't know how to test it and ignored advice on the proper test procedure. I could start ranting, but that's the bottom line.

@AudioResurgence Welcome to the site. You've stumbled into a group of people that are quite experienced the the Crimson 275. Many of us participated in a special build of the 275 back in 2018. Bob offered a kit (actually more a box of parts) where he provided guidance on how to assemble what we ended up calling the CF2018 amp. I believe it to be identical to the Crimson 275. Search around on the site, you will find extensive discussion on the build process with photos and schematics. I looked at your blog. You definitely have a factory Crimson 275 that has been seriously modified. Forgive me for lifting a photo from your blog, but there are clearly some mysteries surrounding the filament wiring and some bonus (and burned) resistors. The Zobel network on the speaker binding posts also seem to be missing. I strongly suggest not plugging it in until either the mods can be understood or removed. Here's a similar shot of a CF2018 amp that is working great. It's a fine amp. They rarely fail. I assure you that Greg at Nelion throughly understands this amp as do many site members. If Greg is too backed up or reluctant to take on the mods, you may find someone here that can help out. Good luck and keep us posted.

Hi, thanks for letting me join the site. Here is the story: a friend gave me a rack of amps, while most of them where not really in great condition, there was a PT2400 in there. I finally had time to get my hand on it. I gave it a due clean and did some random testing. While some people told me it was a really complicated amp and a really "busy" chassis, I can definitely say that it's well engineered and not overcomplicated to disassembled. However, I'm looking for some guidelines to trouble shoot and attempt to fix it. I did look the manual but doesn't explain in details. Is there a topic related to this? Thank you very much for your help.

Welcome to the site, @Anymouse. Glad you found us. Teh key, I have found, is to have a good antenna, along with the TX-11a or b. If you put your TX-11 in the source stream, and have a minimal or one of those desktop antenna's, you need to live downtown of a major city to get anything..., just my opinion. Once you have a good antenna, you will draw in signals that the TX-11a/b can really process and with Bob's ACCD, you will be amazed at the sound quality. I had a thread here about my antenna, an amazon special I mounted in my attic. There's another thread or two about building a "Copper Cactus" FM antenna. Also another very good choice. Antenna's will amaze your experience with bob's tuners. And, when you are ready to pick up a TX tuner, please let me know - I may still have one from my stash, after Christmas 😉 Here's the threads:

Welcome to TCS. I have the 11b tuner and love it. It's the only tuner I use.

Welcome to the forum! They guys on here will steer you in the right direction.

Thank you for all Your input Much apricated

Welcome to TCS, Sir. Good to meet a man from the land of Magnepan!