Hi Steve, i had the Bob Carver Crimson 275 amplifier at 75 watts per channel , what a great amplifier, I was able to trade up(got full value of Crimson) to the Bob Carver 350 watt mono blocks which sound so sweet and warm, also have Bob Carver C-11 pre-amp with sonic holograph talk about a wide sound stage it will blow you away. Can't say enough goods things about Carver and his team in particular Jim Clark so good to deal with. Take Care, Bill

I've always thought of Bob Carver as the Carroll Shelby of the HiFi world. Great to see he's still producing at a high level 🏆

The Bob Carver amplifier challenge of decades ago is still a favorite. Long been a fan of his work! Thanks for this review.

Thank you for the review Steve! Our Customers are reporting back that "Steve nailed it", "Steve was right on" . Thank you for keeping it real for your viewers. Jim Clark. Director of Operations, Bob Carver LLC..

I have a Carver 900 that I bought new in 1985 and it still performs flawlessly to this day and has never been repaired. Bob is an audio legend and icon in the industry.

Was a Carver rep in Australia for a while and man the power was just phenomenal running anything including Infinity studio monitors. Think I may start liquidating some of my collection for one of these. Oh yeah Bob's a character.

I owned a Phase Linear 400 amp, and sold it to get the Carver 1.5t amp, which was absolutely wonderful. It drove my Acoustat 1+1's to whatever listening level I wanted. It's one amp I would like to have again.

Always lusted after the Silver Seven. Glad Mr. Carver is still with us. I have a M-500(t) amp that was recently refurbished and going strong.

Wow, what an amp! Beautiful review!

Wow... A tip for the Blue LED light. They show up on guitar effect pedals. I put a little piece of Yellow electrical tape over it. Works very well to mute the brightness... Giving off a nice green glow.

Thanks, Steve!. Bob Carver was/is a pioneer in the hi fi field. I sprung for the Phase Linear 700 in the early '70s, and was the proud owner for 10-15 years. Used the 700 as a PA amp before I brought it home to use there. The 700 absolutely never lacked for power, for sure.Used a Harmon Kardon Pre Amp and exchanged all of the resistors to 1% before I used it. Very sweet sound when using Infinity (servo) 2000 A electrostatics. They were reviewed in Stereo Reviews November 1971 issue. Needless to say I had many, many hours of wonderful sound reproduction. Thanks for the trip down memory lane with Bob, and yourself!

Steve, here in the Seattle area Bob Carver is still a legend. I clearly remember lusting after that gear as a young man. I've got a modified Duce he rebuilt that is spectacular sounding. Love Mark's gear and cat tree front and center.

longtime Bob Carver fan. I have his M500t power amp (250w per). I've had it for over 30 years now. I recently replaced it with the Jeff Rowland 125 power amp but I am keeping the Carver. The 285 looks like a gem.

I've been a carver fan since the early 80's. I still have a C-1 preamp, 3/ Carver m4.ot power amps, a Sunfire true sub, Sunfire true Signature sub, and a newer Carver LLC Crimson 275. All good stuff. I'm glad to see another Carver review. Thanks.

I love how you review items from companies with direct sales (Carver, Gato, LTA, Decware...) Any plan to review Rogers Hifi (USA)?

Yes, I am the first Commenter. I love Steve Guttenberg he is the god of audio reviews played and simple. Nobody is got more experienced than him doing this for over 30 years.❤❤❤❤

I grew up in Lynnwood WA and as a high school kid would ride my bike to his first shop under the grocery store in nearby Edmonds. He was tolerant of hi fi runs. My brother Victor is a close friend of his and Vic sells high end audio at Kitsap Audio west of Seattle. I had a Carver cube for many years!

If you have one of these consider yourself lucky. They just announced they are closing the Carver manufacturing operations and no more will be produced. Thanks for all the great products and memories Bob Carver.

Very good , explanation. I'm happy to know that B Carver still doing great equipment.

The carver amps he’s made in the last several years are point to point and meticulously made… kind of a bummer he has gone from PTP but the amp seems really solid, thanks for the review Steve.

Ive had the M400t, M500t, C1, Carver 900 Receiver, and a few other pieces rotated through my system over the past 39 years and always loved the sound quality. You never get tired of it. Wish i could find a good pair of gloss black Amazing Loudspeakers ... should have bought a set back in the day. Bob really is a genius.

One of my first decent gear in the 90s was the Carver Receiver. Built like a tank. It was loud matched with B & W

I still use two of his Sunfire subwoofers, one I bought new in 1998. These things are beasts.

He's at it again.. Fiddling with knobs. I've just got a mechanical chronograph and that has terrific knob feel, well pusher feel. They have such a positive click unlike anything else:)

I developed a dynamic bias circuit for a customer amplifier several years ago. The customer gave me correct block to redesign and amplifier that he had bought which was a home brew calamity. So I redesigned it and decided to do some experimentation and solve the problem of how do we get very low idle current without causing the Distortion levels to rise when more power is required. Has anyone familiar with biasing vacuum tube amplifiers will note, vacuum tubes will suffer Notch Distortion as you increase the signal if the bias voltage is too negative. So I took some of the plate winding output and used it to add positive voltage to the bias Network so the bias would start to go less negative as the signal increased. As a result the amplifier ran so cool at idle that you could touch the glass envelopes of the kt88s without burning yourself. You have to amplifier wood develop more Dynamic Headroom than it would with standard Class B bias because the power supply voltage floated at a higher voltage. Another Advantage was the amplifier sounds more dynamic because the gain of the amplifier increases slightly as the signal increases giving it a livelier sound and increasing the dynamic range.

I still use two Carver m-400t's bridged into mono. Love his stuff.

Hi Steve, thanks for the review of Bobs newest tube amp. I bought his Crimson 275 tube amp a couple of years ago. It uses 4 KT120 tube and 2 12AT7W and 1 12AX7. New it was $2500 dollars and came with the 5 year warranty on everything including the Tubes. I actually brought it to a friends house who has a McIntosh mc275, I think it was the 3rd rendition. We both agreed the 275 was on par with the McIntosh, except maybe the Mac had a touch more air in the highs and maybe a little tighter bass, but we really had to listen intentionally and intently. I had the same 30 day return policy. I decided to keep it. My favorite speaker to run it with was the LRS. I wonder if the RAM 85 is worth twice the price of the Crimson 275?

Bob is a very unique individual for sure! Also surprisingly funny! Bob helped me to enjoyed music with his awesome amplifiers!👍

I always appreciate Steve's reviews and this one is no exception. I enjoy his enthusiasm and expertise but, most of all, I feel his appreciation for the producers and engineers making decisions, sometimes on a moment's notice, that can affect the sound of a recording. Steve doesn't listen with an objective set of standards, but rather listens for "life" in a recording which, as one of those engineers, is what I strive for and is, I believe, the only important goal for any work of art.

I had the 400. Loved it

My first "quality" system was all-Carver, including the original "Amazing" speakers.

Still using two of my Sunfire subwoofers in my home theater. Good stuff.

i still have my Phase Linear 700B and it still works!

I still have my Carver receiver, sort of was consumer State of the Art in 1982. It had a moving magnet phono input, which is the reason I chose it and it's 140 W, to drivemy JBL 240 TI's and JVC turntable. The SS Carver was the weak link in my vinyl front end system oh I had a tascam cassette deck recorder and later on other kinds of things but I was always a vinyl guy so I bought the best turntable I could afford, the best cartridge I could afford to protect my records and the best speakers I could afford. Well almost 45 years later I still have my Carver Receiver and I've had it repaired three times and it's done fantastic. Broadcast radio isn't that important for me anymore I get everything online but it is the only one of my three original components that I intend to replace. I am replacing it with another integrated amplifier, but this time I'm going with the integrated tube Rogue Cronos Magnum III, I wanted something that could push the JBL's that are @89 DB sensitivity. It has a solid state phono section, so I'm going to step it up a notch and go with an Rogue Ares Phono-preamp M II and my 42 yo Classic JVC QL-Y66F TT as my front end. Going through auxiliary, so I'll be able to run 2 turntables when I finally upgrade to a new deck. I considered the New Carver Tube Amp, and the Decware Sara & Sophia and other triode amps even Western electric designs, and I just didn't think the efficiency of the JBL's was high enough to give me the full effect of what I like to listen too. I haven't heard the Rogue, but I'm looking forward to it. On order. PS your opinion about exile on Main Street. My favorite Rolling Stone album too. I never considered that Mick Jagger added his vocals later. I know he was babysitting Bianca while everybody was at Nellčote. They stayed at another location and that it was unbearable conditions in the basement of the Villa at Nellčote. I know he added certain things in LA, but that he wasn't part of the creation of the whole thing. I never considered that before.

the variable bias is a good idea.

I owned both the Phase Linear amp and the 4000 preamp. Prior to that I was using an Ampzilla.

Yet another great review. I wish you could review the famous SST Ampzilla 2000, another legend.

Great history on Carver , The Audiphiliac is my #1 purveyor of "Oil of Snakes"

Bet you were (are) a great audio salesperson. Your enthusiasm keeps your attention and building value for what ever you are demoing. All the past knowledge comes out. Even though most of the stuff you show costs more than I make a year!

The Amazings were way ahead of their time.

Hey Steve. I don't have time right now to search all comments. Have you heard that the late John stroebeen of Ohm acoustics (ohm walsh) was approached by Bob carver to design a driver for carvers new subwoofer. That subwoofer was the sunfire true subwoofer. John stroebeen in collaboration with Bob carver,the sunfire true sub was born. Also research the connection between Thiel speakers and ohm walsh. In fact some of ohms speakers use a 4th order Thiel Butterworth crossover. PS. Did you do a review of the ohm acoustics flagship F5015 from the 20/20 K SERIES. you mentioned a possible review for 2023.if not did John's death delay or stop the review? I talked to John's sister(joy) John's family and some of his workers are committed to keeping ohm acoustics alive. They were looking for a buyer.i believe they will find one if they have not already. It would be a shame if one of the best kept secrets in hifi audio and one of the best speakers period were discontinued,in terms of height,width,depth,and of Soundstage, and realism you said in the review of the ohm walsh 1000 series reviews. If the new owners continue with John's vision,isn't ohm walsh designs one of the closest we will get to realism? Although I think absolute realism is not possible,but let's get close.

Had at one point the Carver M-1.0t

Bob Carver seems to have been around forever in hi-fi, even for an old geezer like me, there was sometimes something different to his designs, like an amp where the signal input directly modulated the power supply's current into speakers, a class '?' amp. P.S. Yep, the golden years of "Let It Bleed" Beggars Banquet, one i must have 4got around that time, maybe Black & Blue, ...& "Some Girls" with "Exile on.. .." just slipping in by the skin of their teeth, tho I have more Stones I enjoy b4 & after those, but thee above take some beating. P.S. I saw the finest Rod Steward album on left screen & the album (after it?) "Never a Dull Moment" is it's only near equivalent in excellence. Then he went a bit mad, married Brit, Eckland & started looking & dressing like Lois The Fourteenth, whenever pictured by the Pop' Paparazzi, until The Punk Revolution came along & his head was due to be chopped off, musically speaking, & it was b4 he really went commercially "mushy" & earnt another fortune from later stuff i dont care for. The L.P. the earlier (pre-'Faces?) L.P. he sings on, with Jeff Beck's name on ftront, is well good Rod Steward blues singing at his finest

An excellent review. I noticed some of the comments indicated just how long Mr. Carver keeps at this! I wanted a Phase Linear from the time I heard one at a man's house who was part of The Grateful Dead sound team. Finally got a Phase 700B many years ago and the amazing thing with it the longer I own it the better it sounds. Now a backup but I will not part with it.

There's no question that Bob made some of the best solid state audio Care on the market. However, when he delved into the tube world his designs were fine but suffered from crappy quality Chinese made audio output transformers. When I tested his vt20 to be which was in my shop because the customer thought something was wrong with it I discovered the bandwidth of the amplifier was only 70 to 15 kilohertz. Despite Bob making the claim that it has some incredible been with down near the one hurts range. Maybe it does at 1 ml. But not at useful power levels. That said I still own and use the c4000 free app as the centerpiece of my sound system since February 1980.

you missed the infamous Carver challenge-Carver caused a stir in the industry in the mid-1980s when he challenged two high-end audio magazines to give him any audio amplifier at any price, and he’d duplicate its sound in one of his lower cost (and usually much more powerful) designs.

Aside from the two blobs of hot clue inside, I'm impressed and also with the happy push trough discrete components and thus future 'repairability'. A real generations / lifetime long usable hifi component with a 'soul'! Priced right I suppose!

Steve... I've been a longtime fan; sure, the Rolling Stones "Exiles on Main Street" may not be considered... "Audiophile" quality, but who cares! Awhile back I heard you disparage the 2nd Traffic album as well, but once again this is one of the greatest albums of that magical period of British rock music. That happens to be engineered by either or BOTH of the Johns brothers... Glyn and Andy. Who are responsible for MORE great classic rock albums of all time than anyone else! I just finished a really great book even though it came out several years ago. Sound Man... The Auto biography of Glyn Johns it's a fantastic read about one of the greatest engineer/producers ever, (he's also responsible for the much better mix of the Beatles Let It Be...Naked, without all of Phil Spectors nonsense) Our family is in the music industry and had the great pleasure of knowing Andy Johns quite well before his untimely death in 2013. My sister manages the studio where Pet Sounds was originally recorded. Once western Recorders... now East West Recording Studios. If you ever make it out to LA, please feel free to contact her for a tour of one of the most beautiful recording studios on Earth. This studio has SO much history, Frank Sinatra actually owned it at one point and is responsible for more Grammy winning recordings than any other studio in town! Peace, and keep up the great work! Dave

Another tube amplifier producer who gives 5 years on the tubes is Western Electric 😊 it says a lot about the quality on offer

Don't forget the C9 Hologram generator, that I continue to use presently.

Very cool.

Pricewise, this is a competitor to the Cary Audio SLI-80 HS. I wish Steve would review the Cary.

I had one of Carver's first CD players. It had an "analog" button. When I pressed on it, it's rolled over the details and added a hiss to the sound.

Awesome. If my ship comes in and it's not on fire, this is what I would add to my system. I would use my Lyngdorf 1120 integrated amp as a pre amp with room correction along with my Q Acoustics Concept 50s. Hello Santa?

Wow, no mention of the Cinema Grand 5 chanel amp? You could get it from 200w to 300 wpc. I had mine for 20 years. Think I paid $1500.00 for mine. Now, use it in 2 channel biamp with my 1st gen B&W 703 floor standing speakers.

Steve. Do you ever get any buzzing noise when using separates?

Seems like there's a lot of stellar stuff in 3-5k range amp wise. But I think ultimately I'll just get a modest ish tube amp so I can switch between solid and tube. Don't want to sell my Denafrips Hyperion and be stuck with just one style of sound.

I have a primaluna premium dialogue with kt -120's, I use a C4000 carver as my phono-stage. I play this through Perfect SET 10 tektons

TFM 45 is my daily driver

It would be interesting to hear Roger Modjeski's comment on that name if he was still with us. RAM!?!

Tub-ey or not Tub-ey, that is the question!

What was the speaker pair with this amp that you enjoyed the most?

i HAD BOTH THE SUNFIRE 10 AND 12 SUBS. COULD NEVER GET THEM TO INTEGRATE

I think the C500 and C4000 were before the magnetic field amplifier stuff.

Hmmm interesting.

I want a tube amp and I have a 5K budget. I’m torn between this amp and the Raven Audio Osprey.

I hope he has some further research on cross talk cancellation!

I’ve seen Bob carver amps all over the place on the used market but never heard one. No clue if these are any good but there are a ton of these diy / small shop amps all around. Like jolida , Conrad Johnson, quicksilver, radu, dynaco, Manley, Vincent audio, rogue, elekit, decware, Donald north, canary audio, Cary audio. It starts to get dizzying in terms of quality, pecking order , pricing, and value.

It's not stated THD plus noise no figure given why?

How did it compare to the Decware Sarah you recently reviewed?

surprised it is not point to point wired for 5 k

I wonder what those tubes did wrong in order to get themselves put behind bars...

I was thinking more like, 911 993 Porsche Turbo 😅

I could never afford any of Bob Carver’s products🤣. Still can’t

Have you tried to interview him?

Steve, why is Bob Carver ceasing operations?

Is this the same Mr Carver who laid waste to more pro audio with the PM1.5 than I care to remember ,,,, they sounded well but when they went dc they destroyed anything plugged into them ,,,

I would be curious to hear how it compares to a Macintosh MC275 tube amp.

Yes… Carver is a legion…. I owned GAS Ampzilla.. better… I remember all this… I still own a sunfire sub… for home theater…

All of Bob Carver’s real products have always been Made in USA!!! Anything related to him that were not were after he had nothing to do with those companies!!!

Standby is not obvious vs "on"

Bob companies go in and out of business. Makes that hard to buy from.

For $5000 it had better cover everything :)

Still can't afford a Carver amp!! All of them are drool-worthy and out of reach. What an inventive presence in audio!

I yet again inform you that “Tubey Sound “ is distortion. Sweet tube sound, is distortion. Hopefully one day you will get it. Cheers

Steve dyed his hair.

This is unrelated to Bob Carver and is various incarnations....it is question about Steve and this channel, which i have tuned into for many years. Does Steve ever truly criticize any speakers or components. The most I think i have ever heard was something like....there are better, but boy, for the money...... Not all stuff is great or even up to the level of average or mediorce, so it would be nice to know that he will condemn a product if it deserves it.

$4995.00 is really cheap

They should at least tell us the type of tubes, manufacturer etc. And how do they push 85 watts? Push pull? Common Steve, do a better job

John, love your work but I'm sorry I don't think this at all is proper evidence of impact your changes had. This anakysis is taking the absolute worst csee scenario to the absolute best case scenario, no way a real or ideal world analysis. Any time I ever moved into an apartment, before I had anything in it, it sounded bad. But we live in a room by adding lot of stuff, carpets, furniture, tables, bookshekevs and many many more things. Those are by design there to improve your room situation. So any real improvement should consider an average lived in room with furniture and things people usually have and then test how kucb difference these additions make over using furniture and things we own to make room better.

5 year tube warranty, with today’s inconsistency? Sounds to me like someone is really needing sales. Bob thinks out the box with his designs. Now the marketing is out the box. I’m not knocking the company. Today you need to stand out of the crowd. Too bad other companies will not look to Carver, like others to Apple, and follow the pack.

Bob Carver is a Legend. 👍🫡💎🇺🇸👂🫵💡🎼♾️🙏🏼✨✌️

Ummm why does it look like a complete rip off of a McIntosh MC 275? Inquiring minds want to know......

Looks Chinese,

An old hack, trying to stay alive 😮 Resale value is horrendous 😢

I had a Carver amp bought new back in the eighties. Pure, 100% JUNK. Beware of Carver amps.