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Hello Enrique, and welcome to thecarversite.com. We're glad you're hear. ;) There is a lot of information here, much technical know how, and a pretty good bunch of folks that are happy to help.

 

The C1 is a great preamp, and with the BillD upgrade, it's nothing short of phenomenal. I've never owned an M1.5t, but many here speak very highly of them.


Once you get to Novice status, please consider uploading some pics of your gear in the Members Systems area. We all like pics of all kinds of audio gear.


In the meantime, kick your shoes off, turn up the music, and welcome aboard.

 

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Welcome aboard @Enrique Jackson!!!  Glad you found us here at TCS! 

 

I have an M-1.5t in my system now and love it!  It sounded very harsh and grainy though when I first started using it some 15 years or so ago now.  The dual caps in my unit failed on the right channel taking out several output transistors and I had just repaired and re-capped my unit a year or two before I joined this site.

You can see my write-up in the link below:

 

 

I was perusing many results from my google searches concerning this amplifier being grainy/harsh and found many posts to this effect on the M-1.5t.  So I really believed it just sounded harsh.  I eventually found an M-400 and replaced the M-1.5t with it and it sounded much better to my ears.  So I ran it for several years.  But I decided I wanted to try my M-1.5t again and really cranked it up loud and it sounded grainy and harsh then it went into protection mode.  But after I went through it, completed the repair and replaced all the caps in both amp boards and on the power supply, I was shocked at how clean and clear this amplifier sounds now.  It sounds fantastic to me, I've never looked back and have been using it in my HTS as the Front mains amp for many years now.  Another thing I noticed after the repair was how much cooler the amp runs now compared to before.  It used to run very hot even at lower volumes.  Now I can crank it very loud and it only gets slightly warm to the touch now.

 

I'm convinced now that the grainy/harsh sound I was hearing was caused by those failing low and mid rail power supply dual caps at C13 & C14 about to fail on my M-1.5t.  Any harshness in sound from this amp means it needs to be refurbished quickly.  Another sure sign is a warm running amp at low volume levels.

 

Again, welcome to TCS! Kick back, crank it up and stay awhile.  There's a lot of great, knowledgeable folks in here in all things Carver!

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Ditto what @Turbo posted above...

 

That m1.5t amp is gold.  But, it's also ~30 years old.  Those capacitors are a) old, and b) probably never had the quality as capacitors made today.

 

A full refresh will shock you when you hear the difference.

 

I have 3 of these amps..., 😉 

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Thank you Andrew, I just acquired my M 1.5t and my C1, I wanted to change up my gear from my current rig, I got these 2 recently from a nice Vintage stereo shop here in Houston TX for a decent price, he said he found no bulging or leaking caps etc...only my awareness and playing time will tell, I'm currently pushing a pair of Klipsch Chorus ii and pair of CV DX9s that I rotate in, with and ADCOM GFA 555ii via NAD 1600, and  at times tweeking  with and Audio Controll C -101, I hoping my expectations will be met and thank you 

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Welcome Enrique. I too am in the Houston area. I have 2 M-1.5 and a few other Carver Pre and Amps. None have been refurbished as of yet. I would love do the BillD upgrade on one of my C-1 and the MKII upgrade on the pair of M-1.5 now that it is available.

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Welcome.jpg.f9c0672bae019407cfba70e2c16a9de2.jpg

 

Welcome to the group!  Nice choice of equipment to rotate through in your system.

 

Like others have indicated, the minus to any older equipment is that caps, etc. are due for a refresh after 25+ years, and the sound will improve very noticeably in most cases, and can, potentially, be a bit of a ticking time-bomb. 

 

The plus, is that many older quality components, for example Carver gear, really lend themselves to this, and can give you an absolutely killer system for a tiny fraction of what you would pay for new, or even recent, used equipment.  It's an amazing way to jump from good to fantastic, and can leave you money to put towards other items (e.g., speakers, etc.) that improve things even more.  There are plenty of folks here who can either guide you, or help you with getting things done.

 

Oh, and yes, it IS very addictive.  Trust me - I thought I was immune to it.  Nope, not a chance.  OCCD is incurable.  :D

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Thank you for the warm welcome Brian!... you're right OCCD 😆, an Obsession for sure, especially when I have to sneek around wifey to buy and install components in a coy manner, I can't wait to put my Carver gear into Sound!... thank you and Happy  New Year!

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29 minutes ago, Enrique Jackson said:

especially when I have to sneek around wifey to buy and install components in a coy manner,

 

Once the award system gets patched, we have a sticker for that :D 

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On 12/30/2020 at 5:42 PM, Java1960 said:

[...]   and the MKII upgrade on the pair of M-1.5 now that it is available.

 

Adding a link..., And suggestion that you go to Nelion for the M1.5t MkII upgrade - it's his invention.

 

https://nelionaudio.com/index.php?/services.html/carver/carver-amplifiers/carver-m-15t-mkii-restore-and-upgrade-r20/ 

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