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Bob Carver's custom built tube mono-block amps

14K views 75 replies 21 participants last post by  rdgrimes 
#1 ·
Carver has recently been building and selling these custom built tube amps via eBay. This is the 4th or 5th pair he has built. Each pair has offered increasing output ratings. The last pair sold for just over $10,000.


These are hand built mostly from vintage parts, Bob hand winds the transformers himself. Drool factor: 10/10.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Stereo-Pair-Mono...item2a06c8ed34
 
#56 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by rdgrimes /forum/post/20630610


Falling into the "if you have to ask" category.

Well, I am quite rich. I have over 30 million dollars. In the online racing game I play. Not sure if I can redeem that for real money or not though
Heck, my sister is even richer. She was in the top 70 money list in the game for awhile. Cheap skate I think. Refused to spend money on making her car faster.
 
#57 ·
Well you all might find this interesting, he is paired up with the old president from Elan Home Systems and launching Bobcarver.com and plans to sell hand wound mono blocks in various sizes, I would assume similar items to his ebay auctions. Someday I guess I will have to win the lottery and have a dedicated 2 channel room with some super high end gear.


I am really kinda curious how they would sound with my Sunfire CRS3's and CRS3c's. I had a sunfire amp for awhile and it certainly sounded better than my Denon 3808. I caught myself on more than one occasion flipping to the two channel track, and being wowed. Wonder if my old buddy Bob would hook an old dealer up for a demo


I really would be interested to hear the difference!


Anyways just thought you all might find it interesting!


Brandon
 
#59 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelJHuman /forum/post/18579924


Yes, I know a bit about him. As I say, it's my knowledge about him which made me wonder, why tubes. Maybe he felt he had done all he could with solid state, and wanted a change of pace.

He may has a non-compete with Sunfire which limits what fun he can have.

Perhaps, tubes were not covered



- Rich
 
#60 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelJHuman /forum/post/18579820


If I had a lot of spare money, I would buy a set.


I am curious though, why tubes? Carver does not seem to be a zealot about audio, and seems to think amps should amplify and not add to any sonic character. Perhaps he just likes working with tubes.


I assume he embraces using feedback, and these have low distortion. But I did not see any distortion specs posted. Did I miss them?

Carver is well known for liking tubes due to their higher even-order harmonic distortion and lower odd order, compared to solid state. This is said to IMPART a warmer sound to music. I emphasized impart because I don't agree that he is a "straight wire with gain" guy. I think he even had some SS amps that had a user switchable mode that emulates the even order harmonic structure of tubes.


Also, much of his electronics through the years featured functions that altered the "straight-through" signal in away he felt enhanced the listening experience. These included the famous sonic hologram, the Grundig Effect, and a subharmonic control on the equalizer for his speakers.
 
#61 ·
According to the progression of eBay auctions and Carver's comments in various places, this succession of tube amps started when he cleaned out his warehouse and found a lot of parts he was saving for no particular reason. He had a lot of fun building some new designs, one thing let to another and he was making his own transformers and so forth.


More than anything, he does this because he loves to do it. Why tubes? Maybe it has to do with the fact that he's pretty well plugged into the community and knows that many of the folks with deep pockets and collector types are into tubes. They are also pretty simple to design and build, relatively speaking.

Quote:
I think he even had some SS amps that had a user switchable mode that emulates the even order harmonic structure of tubes.

Most of the Sunfire designs have dual outputs with one of them intended to offer the "tube sound".
 
#62 ·
The current source output on the Sunfire has a 1 ohm resistor connected to it, which supposedly gives you a more tubelike sound. I guess it raises it's output impedance?
 
#63 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelJHuman /forum/post/20743324


The current source output on the Sunfire has a 1 ohm resistor connected to it, which supposedly gives you a more tubelike sound. I guess it raises it's output impedance?

I think the same applies to most of the Carver "t" series SS amps, but they only have the one output. Most of the Carver designs can run to theoretical "0" ohm loads for brief periods, (peaks), many are rated to 2 and a few are rated to 1. So adding a 1u resister doesn't change much in that regard.


In the old days, Carver was often quoted as saying that the real difference between tube and SS was distortion, with tubes having more. Whatever it is, some people really like the "tube sound".
 
#67 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelJHuman /forum/post/20743324


The current source output on the Sunfire has a 1 ohm resistor connected to it, which supposedly gives you a more tubelike sound. I guess it raises it's output impedance?

Major reason for the resistor is that it changes the dampening factor..

This was 1st done by some of the Esoteric power amplifiers from Japan 25 years ago...


Just my $0.02...
 
#68 ·
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