New to the site, but not to Carver amps!

[drpixel 11]

Hello all!  As the title says, I am a new member, but I've owned a few Carver amps before.  In fact, I started off my audiophile journey with Carver equipment. 

 

When I was 19 years old, I worked for Best Buy installing car stereos in the early 90s.  Back then, I thought Infinity and Bose were as good as it gets for high end audio.  Then one day, I strolled into a small audio shop when I had some time to kill.  Most small electronics shops I'd been to prior to this sold cheap stereo equipment like Magnavox, Emerson, or some other terrible brand.  This shop was very different.  It had an almost regal feel to it, and the music I was hearing when I opened the door was light years better than anything I'd experienced before.  I was drawn to a particular section of the shop where the haunting melody of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game was floating in the air.  What I heard was truly three dimensional sound, out of a pair of speakers for the first time.

 

When I looked to see what equipment was able to perform this magic, I was taken aback by the beautiful warm glow of two VA meters before noticing the words "Carver" and "TFM-35x".  That amp would eventually become the foundation of my first "real" audio system.   I didn't make that much at Best Buy, so I put it on layaway until I was finally able to pay it off and bring it home.  I started off with Polk speakers, and I don't recall the model, and while they sounded good, they weren't that memorable looking back.  I soon won the favor of the owner of that small audio store, and he made me an incredible deal where he would sell me a pair of Martin Logan Aerius at a crazy low price in exchange for me letting him use my Best Buy discount.  This is when the Carver truly showed off its chops.  I was in heaven.

 

Carver will always hold a special place in my heart because it was what led me to experience truly amazing sound.  I'm very thankful that I took the time to visit that shop.

 

Fast forward to why I am here today.. I just picked up an M-400t for an incredibly low price.  I'm hoping to restore it to its full glory.  One of the channels isn't working, so I'll start by investigating that. From there, I'll likely move on to replacing all of the aged parts (recap, etc).  Looking forward to being a part of the community.  Who knows, maybe one day I'll even pick up an old TFM-35x.  Those gauges are still a piece of art if you ask me.  

[Receiver2000 3,962]

Welcome to the site. I like your story!!!

[Zenith4me 1,470]

Welcome to TCS!

[Half Life 571]

Welcome from VA!  Enjoy your stay!

[3M_Audio 1,998]

Welcome! That's a great back-story you have. And in case you haven't already found them, the service and owner's manuals are available by clicking the 'Manuals and Specsheets' tab at the top of any page.

[Dennis47 968]

WELCOME @drpixel!

Glad you found us.  

[Sk1Bum 11,367]

Hello drpixel and welcome to thecarversite.com. Glad you found us.

 

What a great back story! The M400t was my first Carver amp, and at one time I had 6 of them. I used one bridged for each channel in my home theater. My daughters both have one in their 2 channel systems.

 

The TFM's are all popular here with many threads regarding them. 

 

Are you still using the Martin Logan Aerius? I have a pair of Martin Logan ESL's in my stereo rig, and I love them. They're driven by an M-500t mkII, and that's a great pairing to these old ears.

 

[Kurt 2,869]

Welcome to the Carver Site!

[Cring08 241]

WELCOME!

[AndrewJohn 10,412]

Welcome @drpixel, glad you found us.

 

My first Carver Amp was a TFM-35x (OK, a pair of them!) horizontally biamping a pair of Infinity speakers... magical first experience, like yours.

 

So glad you found us.

 

Start a thread on your repair journey with the 400, if you like, and definitely share some pictures!  We love pictures.