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I am a hobbyist in vintage audio gear. I have been a fan of Carver since the first time I saw an ad for an M-400. I was a teen during the horsepower wars, so a dollar a watt was pretty cool. I have a few pieces of carver gear. HR-772, HR752, TFM-15CB, one M-400, and one M-400a. I spent 34 years fixing auto manufacturing equipment in the Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana before retiring in 2023. Pretty much everything from soup to nuts in that time. I currently have the M-400a in pieces on my workbench, so that is why I am here now. It is a 15 dollar estate sale item, and it has issues. The left channel board has two very burnt resistors. It has been apart before. It may have some newer caps, and the transistors were slathered with about a pound of compound. I have only disassembled and cleaned so far. So, thanks for all the info in advance, and on with the fun!

New member here, Have the opportunity to purchase a MXR 2000 that has been recapped and transistors replaced for $550. Just wondering if I should, thx

Hard to say..., it's a balance of what your budget is, and your interest in that peice. All in all, that's a nice unit. If restored, as you indicate, it could be priced right. YMMV as we are all different. Not hugely out of the realm of realism. Think of it this way, you might come across an unrestored unit in mint cosmetic condition for around 200-300 bucks. To get it worked on, recapped, and adjusted, along with any service bulletins..., likely another 300 bucks..., that makes the math work for you. Good luck! And, let us know what you end up doing!

Hi Rick and welcome! The MXR is a very nice receiver, although it sounds to me like $550 is probably getting close to full retail. These decisions are always a bit subjective and would vary based on your risk tolerance for vintage equipment and budget, but if it is local and you can demo it and are happy, then go for it. If it were me, I'd want to ask the seller who did the service. If it were a Carver specialty shop like Nelion or Carver Audio Repair and I could see the paperwork, I'd be perfectly happy going ahead with the purchase. if it were a local repair, I'd want to see the paperwork including the post-service test results showing that the system at least meets the original specs for inputs, tuner, & power output. It's easy to say something is 'recapped' but that in and of itself doesn't mean anything in terms of audio performance. Anyway, hope this might help a bit. Good luck with it!

hi all, good to be here. Got the audio bug bad in the 80's-90's, never recovered. Heard a lot of carver stuff back then but haven't lately. Just got a TFM-15cb, and have some questions.

Welcome. Good to have you Doug.

Hello all, I have a Carver M-200t and am having what I consider an issue. When passing audio the protect LED flashes seemingly randomly. The audio sounds clean to me in fact this amp sounds great. I did a total recap on it and this is the last issue that’s bugging me. Any ideas where I might look? I’ve scoured the schematic in the service manual to no avail.