Leaderboard

Hi everyone. I’ve worked for the railroad for 30 years and travel almost weekly from Birmingham AL to Everett WA. After modifying a PL 400II from the help of the Phoenix Audio community, I desired to try a Carver M 1.5t amp from my uncle’s basement. Will see if this will be easier or cheaper then my flame amp. Thanks

Anyone seen the old Stones documentary, “Sympathy for the Devil?” I'm reading Keith Richard’s autobiography, “Life” on Kindle. It was just a few bucks, so I thought, why not. I'm only about 20% in but it’s not bad. The style is a sort of fireside reminiscing – it reads like he’s sitting in a rocking chair and telling the stories of his youth and life. But it got me to watch the Rolling Stones “Sympathy for the Devil” documentary on Amazon Prime. Made in 1968 and directed by Godard it’s a mess; interspersed with social commentary in the form of long goofy vignettes that make up half the film. I just fast forwarded through those bits. But there’s no getting around the inexplicable pulp-porn background narration. The rest is the Stones rehearsing ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ at the studio. We get a fleeting glimpse into their song writing process, but not much, just a few minutes of scattered jam sessions over a couple days. A missed opportunity – if Godard had just stuck to documenting their time in the studio, we might have learned something. The most interesting part was watching Brian Jones. They all seem to get along fine but he's soon relegated to his own little sound booth where we see him wholeheartedly strumming his “rhythm guitar” part during all the rehearsals – for all the world, he looks like he’s putting in more effort than anyone else. But it’s obvious his mic isn’t picking up anything. And it’s just as obvious he has no idea. It’s both sad and funny. He doesn’t seem very stoned, or worse than anyone else, anyway. It just looks like they’re trying to keep him happy and make him feel like he’s still a part of it. Funny enough, on the final recording, he’s actually credited with “rhythm guitar – inaudible.” /gh

Welcome, @RBQ! That's quite the commute! I can't offer any guidance, "under the hood," but you are definitely in the right place to find people who can. It's also far too late to warn you of the perils of OCCD, so I'll just welcome you to that club, too! That is something I understand (far too well) and can provide encouragement for!

Welcome @RBQ! You might want to research the MKII upgrade for your M-1.5t from Nelion Audio. Did you do the WOPL modification your PL 400 II? Both are nice amps! Good luck with your upgrade/refurb project. What AJ said....well love pictures

Welcome, @RBQ. That PL400II is a nice amp. The m1.5t will be a different but also excellent experience. Your ears will tell you which you prefer. I have a Carver C-400, which is similar to the PL, but was the first amp Carver Corp put out after Bob Carver reformed post PL. I like it. and also like my m1.5's. OCCD is a disease that keeps many amps in the stable for different interests your own ears may demand. Looking forward to learning how your project to refresh your 1.5t amp goes. Please post! (and we like pictures !!) Oh, lots of good guys from PL days on that Phoenix site. Glad you found it, and glad you found us too. Welcome!

New to the site but dusting off my Carver gear and getting things back into shape. I have a M1.5T and C-1 that I have had since brand new. Both are in need of a little work so I looked around and found this site. Happy to be here and learn of all the exciting mods and support for Carver gear. I will be posting the status of my gear and looking for some input for troubleshooting and a few replacement parts. Sounds like a I need to replace the caps in my amp as a starting point. I was an certified tech in the mobile electronics world and also in my previous military career as well so I feel pretty comfortable doing average maintenance and soldering. Happy to be here and look forward to learning from you all. Cheers

Welcome. M1.5t cap mods require a bit of patience as it can be a challenge to remove the dual caps (8 solder points each). The rest of it is straightforward. The C-1 could possible be the easiest to work on out of all of the Carver gear.