Favorite Amplifier that you could buy, but don’t buy…

[lovinthehd]

Just had my carvers restored in the spring I must say they do preform incredible . Gobs of power absolutely dead quite for the price I couldn’t have bought comparable power for the price and a full 3 year warranty .

Were you having transformer noise before sending them off? Did you use Nelion?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

They sound great too but yeah, there's that. How often will you use a warranty on a decent amp? 3 years covers the period in which you are going to have an issue if it has a problem most likely. I can't recall an amp I had to have warrantied so far, except the Emotiva XPA-3 B-stock. It had a damaged binding post and they replaced it with a new unit. I sold the 3 and bought a 5 off a member here; that was at least 10 years ago.

You never need it until you do need it. Just because it hasn’t happened to you, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen to you. That’s just life. Sh!t can happen any given year. Just ask the people who actually needed repairs.

But warranty isn’t just about needing service. When an established company offers you a lot more warranty, it tells you they stand behind their products. They are putting their money where their mouth is. They are proving that their amps have such high quality that they can offer you 20 YR warranty. They’re not just SAYING WORDS. They are doing the deed.

But probably not everyone feels this way. Like I said, there are multiple factors. Not all factors are equally important to everyone. Some don’t care about warranty at all. Some people don’t care about aesthetics or pride of ownership at all.

 

[mtrycrafts]

So if the dealer is solely responsible for the warranty, what happens if the dealer goes out of business like so many dealers?

It should say life of dealer warranty.

 

[Mikado463]

I've always said, the best warranty is the one you never have to use ........

 

[mtrycrafts]

Just had my carvers restored in the spring I must say they do preform incredible . Gobs of power absolutely dead quite for the price I couldn’t have bought comparable power for the price and a full 3 year warranty .

If it is dead quiet, what do you use when listening to music or a good movie?

 

[mtrycrafts]

I've always said, the best warranty is the one you never have to use ........

Is that possible?

 

[Verdinut]

If it is dead quiet, what do you use when listening to music or a good movie?

Maybe you need to replace a fuse?

 

[Mikado463]

Is that possible?

LOL, damn right it is.........

 

[Mark E. Long]

Were you having transformer noise before sending them off? Did you use Nelion?

On one it got real noticeable on the other two really all three took a lighting hit channels started dropping out so I pulled them after much thought and looking at what was out there . This was cheaper and I liked there sound sent them to Nelion looked and sounded as new .i might add the turnaround time was quick for all three at once about six weeks packed very well too .

 

[lovinthehd]

On one it got real noticeable on the other two really all three took a lighting hit channels started dropping out so I pulled them after much thought and looking at what was out there . This was cheaper and I liked there sound sent them to Nelion looked and sounded as new .

Just saw someone comment they'd sent in amps similar to mine that didn't mitigate the transformer noise. Don't think there are transformer replacements offered with the "upgrades" tho. Not sure how many amps you have replaceable/upgradeable transformers either....or whether cost effective.

 

[Verdinut]

Just saw someone comment they'd sent in amps similar to mine that didn't mitigate the transformer noise. Don't think there are transformer replacements offered with the "upgrades" tho. Not sure how many amps you have replaceable/upgradeable transformers either....or whether cost effective.

IMO transformers are not a major source of required replacement with any electronic equipment over time. Power supply electrolytic capacitors are.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Just saw someone comment they'd sent in amps similar to mine that didn't mitigate the transformer noise. Don't think there are transformer replacements offered with the "upgrades" tho. Not sure how many amps you have replaceable/upgradeable transformers either....or whether cost effective.

The full restoration on these is quite deep from Nelion I was concerned about the one I talked to Greg and he assured me that this would not be a problem if need be . But I have heard of it not totally going away on one or two I read myself I’d call and talk to Greg he’s knowledge in all carver gear . And it was way closer to ship for me . They do mods on some amps and preamps too .

 

[highfigh]

The $160K Mercedes only has a 4 YR bumper-to-bumper?

Somebody needs to come up with a 20 YR bumper-to-bumper.

20 year bumper to bumper, for a car?

People abuse warranties- offering long warranties are a good way to become extinct unless the customer base is actually respectful of the brand and manufacturer. I would also argue that Bryston isn't known well enough to have a large enough customer base to include the kinds of morons who abuse things and try to get warranty coverage because "They said it would be covered", not thinking that what they did to it is considered 'abuse'. You should have seen what people did to speakers in the late-'70s and through the '80s. "What do you mean, that I can't turn it all the way up? Why does the volume control go that far?". Yeah, that was a real thing.

 

[Eppie]

20 year bumper to bumper, for a car?

People abuse warranties- offering long warranties are a good way to become extinct unless the customer base is actually respectful of the brand and manufacturer. I would also argue that Bryston isn't known well enough to have a large enough customer base to include the kinds of morons who abuse things and try to get warranty coverage because "They said it would be covered", not thinking that what they did to it is considered 'abuse'. You should have seen what people did to speakers in the late-'70s and through the '80s. "What do you mean, that I can't turn it all the way up? Why does the volume control go that far?". Yeah, that was a real thing.

Oh yeah, I can attest to that, especially for car audio. I remember a customer who brought in his car and to demonstrate the "problem" he turned the volume up to full blast. It was total distortion. Seemed crazy that I had to explain that you can't run a system that way. We put some really good Altec Lansing speakers in that car too but you can fry any voice coil if you try hard enough.

 

[highfigh]

Oh yeah, I can attest to that, especially for car audio. I remember a customer who brought in his car and to demonstrate the "problem" he turned the volume up to full blast. It was total distortion. Seemed crazy that I had to explain that you can't run a system that way. We put some really good Altec Lansing speakers in that car too but you can fry any voice coil if you try hard enough.

Were you involved with IASCA or other competitions? I did a Pontiac GTA with a collection of equipment chosen by one of the sales guys who really didn't understand much of the technology or needs of speakers, fitting in the car, etc. He picked 12" Infinity Kappa woofers in an iso-bandpass cabinet, set into the bin behind the package tray and I got to figure out how to build it with the internal volumes needed. Then, he chose Alpine 6" x 9" midbass drivers for the position next to the rear seats and Infinity 4" x 6" for the dash. He had picked some kind of 6-1/2" for the front doors, but those weren't flat and the crustomer didn't want holes cut. It also had an Alpine parametric crossover and probably an Audio Control crossover, but I don't remember the model- may have been Alpine.

The day I finished, I was under the gun because our store was hosting an IASCA competition and I finished at 5PM. When I asked where the RTA was, I was told that it was outside, at the table where the judging was happening, so the shop manager & I tweaked it by ear. It was a very odd system WRT speakers and placement, but OMG! The image, response, balance of sound and overall sound quality were amazing (and I'm not just patting myself on the back- happy accidents do happen).

Long story short, the car scored very well and in the RTA test, it scored 37 out of 40 points. The guy's previous system was SoundStream amps, don't remember the rest of the system but the subs were a pair of Orion, screwed to a piece of particle board and set in the bin at the rear. He hated the sound so much that he bought an MTX Bass CD, went to a remote corner of the parking lot and absolutely destroyed the subs. I guess I could have prevented it, but never expected someone to hate such a great-sounding system so much they would do that. The real pisser- when he complained to the corporate install manager, the manager sided with that a-hole, not our shop.

 

[Eppie]

Were you involved with IASCA or other competitions? I did a Pontiac GTA with a collection of equipment chosen by one of the sales guys who really didn't understand much of the technology or needs of speakers, fitting in the car, etc. He picked 12" Infinity Kappa woofers in an iso-bandpass cabinet, set into the bin behind the package tray and I got to figure out how to build it with the internal volumes needed. Then, he chose Alpine 6" x 9" midbass drivers for the position next to the rear seats and Infinity 4" x 6" for the dash. He had picked some kind of 6-1/2" for the front doors, but those weren't flat and the crustomer didn't want holes cut. It also had an Alpine parametric crossover and probably an Audio Control crossover, but I don't remember the model- may have been Alpine.

The day I finished, I was under the gun because our store was hosting an IASCA competition and I finished at 5PM. When I asked where the RTA was, I was told that it was outside, at the table where the judging was happening, so the shop manager & I tweaked it by ear. It was a very odd system WRT speakers and placement, but OMG! The image, response, balance of sound and overall sound quality were amazing (and I'm not just patting myself on the back- happy accidents do happen).

Long story short, the car scored very well and in the RTA test, it scored 37 out of 40 points. The guy's previous system was SoundStream amps, don't remember the rest of the system but the subs were a pair of Orion, screwed to a piece of particle board and set in the bin at the rear. He hated the sound so much that he bought an MTX Bass CD, went to a remote corner of the parking lot and absolutely destroyed the subs. I guess I could have prevented it, but never expected someone to hate such a great-sounding system so much they would do that. The real pisser- when he complained to the corporate install manager, the manager sided with that a-hole, not our shop.

No, we never got into competitions. We were the local Clarion dealer and service center but also carried a few other brands. The Clarion gear was a dream to service; so nicely designed with service in mind. I hated working on Alpine. They had one of the best reputations but if something went wrong they were a nightmare to disassemble and diagnose. Kenwood too. Pioneer was nicely designed and easier to service.

I recall very few people going with subs in our area. Most common were 3 way 6x9's in the back. Closest thing to a competition car was my 1989 Ford probe (a hatch back). Clarion at one time had the Audia line, which was their highest end series. I had their best head unit which was pre-out only, had twin FM tuners and a tape unit with Dolby C support (before CD players were common). I ran that into a 10 band 4-channel Clarion EQ which I used to drive 2-ways in the doors and back hatch. I had Audia 2-ways in the back and two Audia 8" subs. They were mounted in the deck lid so that I could use a jack and plug to disconnect the speakers and remove the lid when needed. The EQ had a subwoofer output to drive a separate amp for the subs. I also did not want to cut the door panels on a relatively new car, so I went with 5 1/4" speakers behind the factory grills.

That system did not have gobs of power. The EQ was 4x25W and the sub amp was 2x50W. It was extremely well balanced though. I recorded CDs to cassette with Dolby C which produced near CD quality sound. The Audio 2-ways were designed to take into account the reflections from all of the glass which yielded a more neutral sound. I had a recording of Supertramp's Crime of the Century that sounded absolutely fabulous in that car. Best system I owned but not enough SPL to go into competitions, at least by modern standards. Which seems silly because inside the car it was plenty loud.

 

[Golfx]

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth there was Bryston with 20 year warranties and a perfect reputation. I longed for one of those. But then BOOM Hypex class Ds came along and made large heater class A/B amps less appealing. And then the measurements were as good or untouchably better like the purifi and NcoreX amps. Plus they are much cheaper so you can just buy a spare and swap them out if one breaks.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth there was Bryston with 20 year warranties and a perfect reputation. I longed for one of those. But then BOOM Hypex class Ds came along and made large heater class A/B amps less appealing. And then the measurements were as good or untouchably better like the purifi and NcoreX amps. Plus they are much cheaper so you can just buy a spare and swap them out if one breaks.

You wanted the Bryston class A/B amps with 20YR warranty, but they were not cost-effective.

So you went with the much more cost-effective class-D option that still gave you excellent measurement.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Going way back I was always partial to Soundcraftsman and SAE amps owned two Soundcraftsman PCR 800’s good clean running amps didn’t like the two speed fans in second gear the fans got noticeable. But they could drive low ohm speakers . Today I’d say ATI would be at the top of the list if starting over and I’ve herd a couple carver 4.0 t that had been modded that were really cool but I’ve no idea what one would need with just stupid crazy power .