clstuff 14 Posted September 6 Posted September 6 Hello Carver community. I am new to these amps and I want to learn more about them. I would like to do some repair and restoration work on these amps and I'd love to learn more from the pro's. 9
Half Life 610 Posted September 6 Posted September 6 Welcome from VA! Enjoy your stay! Be sure to check out the Documents section for manuals for your m500 (if you don't already have them). 1
Sk1Bum 11,404 Posted September 6 Posted September 6 Hello clstuff and welcome to thecarversite.com. Glad you found us. The M500 & M500t are very popular amps here, and they are my favorite amp for music. I have one with a 4000t preamp, and that combination with Martin Logan ESL speakers is magic to my old ears. As far as repair and restoration, there are many talented techs and hobbyists that frequent here, and there is a section dedicated to the M500 & M500t. https://thecarversite.com/forum/84-m-500t-amps/ I hope that helps. 1
clstuff 14 Posted September 6 Author Posted September 6 7 hours ago, Sk1Bum said: Hello clstuff and welcome to thecarversite.com. Glad you found us. The M500 & M500t are very popular amps here, and they are my favorite amp for music. I have one with a 4000t preamp, and that combination with Martin Logan ESL speakers is magic to my old ears. As far as repair and restoration, there are many talented techs and hobbyists that frequent here, and there is a section dedicated to the M500 & M500t. https://thecarversite.com/forum/84-m-500t-amps/ I hope that helps. ESL Very Nice! I am planning on using this m500 once its restored on a set of Acoustat 2+2 Mk2. speakers. Hoping this project will be a success. Thank you for the welcome and leads 1
Daddyjt 9,612 Posted September 7 Posted September 7 I have owned, upgraded and repaired a number of Carver M 500(t) amplifiers. It is, dollar for dollar the best value in Carver amplifiers, in my opinion. They sound wonderful, are quite reliable, easy to work on, and have a beautiful aesthetic. Perhaps their only (minor) Achilles Heel is low impedance loading. Even that though is very limited, as the only speaker I ever had thermal issues with while using a 500t were my Infinity Kappa 9 (notorious amp killers), and even then, the thermal protection did its job, and spared the amplifier any damage. i am currently running a pair of 500t MKII amplifiers in my home theater for L/R/C duty… 1 1 1
Brian K. Totten 321 Posted September 7 Posted September 7 8 hours ago, clstuff said: ESL Very Nice! I am planning on using this m500 once its restored on a set of Acoustat 2+2 Mk2. speakers. Hoping this project will be a success. Thank you for the welcome and leads Welcome to the group! I had a Carver stack back in 1989, and recently re-aquired a pair of M500t amp. Both of which were professionally upgraded by Nelion. Unless you know Carver amps inside-n-out, dont risk poking around inside, send your M500 to Greg. He sprinkles some amazing Pixie Dust on these amps that make them sound so sweet! You will not regret the money spent, not to mention the ultra-incredible service and warranty! 1
clstuff 14 Posted September 8 Author Posted September 8 On 9/6/2025 at 9:45 PM, Brian K. Totten said: Welcome to the group! I had a Carver stack back in 1989, and recently re-aquired a pair of M500t amp. Both of which were professionally upgraded by Nelion. Unless you know Carver amps inside-n-out, dont risk poking around inside, send your M500 to Greg. He sprinkles some amazing Pixie Dust on these amps that make them sound so sweet! You will not regret the money spent, not to mention the ultra-incredible service and warranty! I am not too familiar with the Carver amps, but I am going to try and open this one up and have a look around. I am pretty new to vintage audio repair/ restoration, but I find this stuff really fun and amazing to learn. There seems to be a lot of great knowledge in these forums and I'm hoping this Carver site community is open and welcoming with that knowledge and are not gatekeepers.
Brian K. Totten 321 Posted September 9 Posted September 9 44 minutes ago, clstuff said: I am not too familiar with the Carver amps, but I am going to try and open this one up and have a look around. I am pretty new to vintage audio repair/ restoration, but I find this stuff really fun and amazing to learn. There seems to be a lot of great knowledge in these forums and I'm hoping this Carver site community is open and welcoming with that knowledge and are not gatekeepers. Carver amps operate differently than conventional vintage offerings. If your amp is in working condition, that may be a place to clean it up a bit, replace a few caps or even the output relay. The amp operates as a modulated power supply using a Triac. In addition, there are two rail voltages that will switch IN/OUT to supply the output stages the power it needs depending on the amp load. There are Youtube vids that describe this in detail. For me, I have a radio electronics background and repair audio stuff too. But when I understood the work Nelion will perform on an amp, I had to think about working on my M500t's. I am not here to push a direction or convince anyone. There are a lot of people in this forum that work on these amp all the time. The value for me was impeccable work, customer service and 3 years warranty. That said, I sent Nelion a pair of M500t's that were limping along, and I received back very different amps internally. First off, I ordered Upgrade work, not a basic service, or a channel fix, etc. The power supply was upgraded to produce more voltage and current, the output stages were completely replaced to provide a near-double in output capability, that I did not "need" but wanted. But I figured that if Greg was going to bench these amps, give him something exciting to do 🙂 So here I have that pair of M500t's in a stack in bridge mode for a stereo pair that will power anything I could ever throw at these amps for the time being. Sort of like having that 73 Challenger with the hemi engine in it when the 318CID will make it move. Please report back as you proceed. Its all fun stuff no matter the track taken! https://nelionaudio.com/ 2 2
Community Admin AndrewJohn 10,451 Posted September 9 Community Admin Posted September 9 Welcome to The Carver Site, @clstuff, glad you found us. Post some pictures of your gear, here in members systems. We love pictures !! 😉 1
clstuff 14 Posted September 9 Author Posted September 9 Thank you for the welcome and the advice. I'd love to be able to send this out and have it repaired/ restored, but tinkering is part of the fun and part of the challenge. It's great to see that there are ways to keep these amps 'alive' and also upgrade them to perform better than they were ever intended. My current plan is to get the thing working first, then make the upgrades. It currently powers on the lights and the dials, but it makes an awful hum so I don't keep it on for very long. I'll post photos soon. 4
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