Nahash5150

Unfortunately, that's a unit made in China late in Carver's last years. There's no information on them and hardly anyone will service them. Time for something new, or different.

We will be at Carverfest, then on to Texas for the first half of September. We will still have someone available here at the shop though. I also plan on keeping up with emails and phone calls.

Rad

Making custom shipping boxes to help our customers ship safe and easy!

We've teamed up with a company from Hong Kong to make obsolete parts! They are making a new version of the very rare and expensive Sanken transistors that we use of the M-500t mkII upgrade modification - 2SA1295/2SC3264 This is great news! I'm going to stress test these new transistors to make sure they meet the intended quality. If so, we'll be able to continue the M-500t mkII for years to come!

Yes. It's not yet complete though. I've worked out that most of the work is needed in the power supply area. It's looking like the mkII mod will be an extra $500.

MUHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA! Lucy in Disguise - Late Nights magic begins at 3:30

After servicing quite a few Sunfires, I've noticed their shortcomings as well as areas which can be improved. I am currently working on a relatively universal upgrade for Sunfire AMPs. The upgrade will include updates to the amplifier circuits and tracking down converter for more power, better durability and much better soundstage.

What they often need is a new paint job.

We have our own solutions and I can custom order rare parts sometimes. In fact, my custom solutions are often better than a stock part. So my point is about the manufactures and their ignorance/ADHD/neglect of the market. A rather large market! Not about whether we have solutions. Of course we have solutions! It's just in some cases, I'd rather not have to make custom solutions...especially when the parts are out there but distributors just don't keep them in stock, which hints to the manufacturers that they aren't in demand.

Sure, you can order 1000 @ $59.99 a unit, which is about $60,000. Pretty hard to recover that in a fiscal year, unless you're getting a lot of units in for repair that need those parts. Mouser and Digikey sometimes carry these types of parts - but they sell out in just a few weeks, and never bother to restock. It...is...so...strange!

That's right, pony!

Finding new capacitors to replace old ones is still a real challenge. My favorite excuse on the part of new parts manufacturers is that large can screw terminal capacitors are 'cheaper and better' if they are made with a gigantic diameter and short length. For anyone that's spent any time in vintage amplifiers, these large can capacitors were usually pretty tall (long) with a moderate diameter. First of all - what's the bother of making something already expensive a little 'cheaper'? These large can caps are already demoted to 'on demand' manufacture and I don't think anyone will care if they spend $59.99 a piece or $69.99 a piece to fix something that needs it...and I would bet they'd pay an extra $10, or more, to get the same freaking size they were made in the first place! Then there are the voltages...It's just as easy to find a 22,000uF 25V capacitor as it is to find a 10,000uF 450V capacitor. But exceedingly rare to find a 6,800uF or 10,000uF 125V capacitor. Weird? So much money lost, really, because these new parts cannot fit in old stereo gear anymore. Not even not so old equipment! The ways around the size issue don't involve buying any other kinds of screw terminal capacitors, so the void is nothing more than a complete loss of money and waste of resources on parts that frankly, can't be used. It would make sense to make parts that can be used over a wide range of applications...like...make them the same size they were made for decades before. Millions of applications. But, they don't want that market. Instead, only a small niche market that doesn't need more than 'on demand' manufacturing. OLD vs NEW These don't fit in the same space!!!!!

Welcome!

Link to this article please.

There's nothing to debate. You just compared opinions to actual science, and that's apples and oranges. Audio myths die hard, and DF as a basis for quality is one of the most prevalent myths there is.

Dude...

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Welcome to the site @fev1969! It's not possible to get carried away here so rock on.

Sorry - amplifier DF plays very little role in the response of a mechanical driver. The method of calculating DF (driver impedance/amp output impedance) has been debunked many times as a reliable statistic in determining the effectiveness of an amplifier to 'control cone movement'. There is almost no difference between a DF of 20 up to Infinity as far as the entire system is concerned (cable resistance, internal impedance, variable frequency impedance, imaginary resistance, etc). http://linea-research.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LR Download Assets/Tech Docs/Damping factor debunked -01a.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_factor It's also easy to 'fudge' an amp's rated damping factor with negative feedback, which can make the output impedance look vanishingly small, but in real world applications can cause significant distortions and non-linearities. Furthermore, it's typically desirable to drive a loudspeaker with a system that looks more like a current source (high output impedance) since the motor driver of a loudspeaker is an inductor, which responds well to current, not voltage - ergo 'the tube sound'. All this should help indicate how complex the relationship between amplifier and speaker really is. There just isn't any specs that will break it down so you know what amps should drive certain speakers. There's a general idea, but in no way can one simply rely on such things as 'high DF' to determine if a certain amplifier can effectively drive a certain configuration, or that by adjusting the DF somehow you can you expect a better response.

DVCs simply allow for multiple wiring configurations to adjust impedance. If you parallel the VC's together - you'll get half the total impedance of the coils so if they are both 8 ohm, you'll make it into a 4 ohm driver. You can wire in series to double the coil impedance - so 16 ohm with two 8 ohm coils. You can also wire each channel from a stereo amp to each coil. Hopefully, you run a mono signal into the channels so you don't get weirdness. They don't 'sound better' than SVC drivers or have any other real advantages other than wiring configuration flexibility.

And there is a tradition here - if you don't choose a profile picture - we'll pick one for you.

Welcome Gary! Great to see you here!