New Carver amps

[zipper]

<font color='#000000'>Stopped at a local non-chain stereo store today &amp; found they had the Carver ZR series amps with a new power supply design. The salesman described it as a constant-flowing power supply &amp; it had no noticeable transformer in it plus very small caps. The model he demo'd for me was the zr1600, tied to a HT setup featuring Klipsch Cornerhorns.
&nbsp; He played a gunfight scene in the new Costner-Duvall western &amp; the 1st shot scared the sh_t out of me!
&nbsp;OK, enough about that. I want to know if anyone has any experience with these amps musically, as I didn't get to hear them with a CD. It provided very good bass w/o the sub for HT but that is all I can take from my experience, other than I can testify to the fact that it will push a Cornerhorn loud &amp; clear.
&nbsp; This thing is $1100 for a 2X350 WPC, or $1000 for the 2X225 model(ZR1000). I'm skeptical of the design.

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on these units? I didn't find them in Audioreview.com.</font>

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

<font color='#000000'>I don't know the technical details, but there are other ways besides a massive, heavy transformer to get good performance from amps even with low impedance or difficult loads. For one example, Macintosh and others use an autoformer with separate outputs for various impedances (Macintoshes still weigh a ton, though!). Dan B, can you enlighten us further?

Many pro sound amps are designed with such ciruit topologies to be lightweight yet powerful and stable even into very low impedance loads. Saves the roadies backs!</font>

 

[zipper]

<font color='#000000'>Thanks Rip.

&nbsp;I checked on the Carver site &amp; they are not among any of the amps listed. In fact, no one in their forums was discussing them either.
&nbsp; Another benefit of these amps is that they are supposed to use 60% less power, according to salesman. He called them something like a &quot;class T&quot; amp, which only leads me to higher skepticism.
&nbsp; But if these things are for real it would be a nice bargain for that much power.</font>

 

[jeffsg4mac]

<font color='#000000'>I have never liked carver amps myself, the fact that the salesman had it running on a set of klipschorns leads me to believe the amp is a turd power wise, nothing against the Klipsch at all, but the klipschorns are one of the most effecient speakers to drive ever made. A 20watt amp will drive them to eardrum shattering volume levels, they have an extremely high sensitivity level, see the specs below. I very easy speaker to drive.

FREQUENCY RESPONSE:
33Hz-17kHz± 3dB

SENSITIVITY:
104dB @ 1watt/1meter

POWER HANDLING:
100 watts maximum continuous (400 watts peak)

MAX ACOUSTIC OUTPUT:
121dB SPL

NOMINAL IMPEDANCE:
8 ohms</font>

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

<font color='#000000'>Zip: I think the Carver amps you looked at are the pro amps. Bob Carver sold that division but it's still called Carver. It's confusing. So if you were looking at the &quot;Real&quot; Carver site that's why.

Don't know about 'class T' but there are other amp topologies besides the familiar class A, B, and AB, so maybe it's legit. I have heard of Class D, Class G and Class H amps, for instance. Class D are often mis-called &quot;digital&quot; amps because they use a switching (on-off) power supply. The power supply switches on and off at an extremely high frequency, and the audio signal is generated by modulating that frequency to produce the signal. It's kind of the way FM radio transmission works. Class D amps are efficient and lightweight, but tend to have high distortion. They're mainly used in industrial switching and control applications according to my 'beginning electronics' book.  I don't know anything about class G and H amps, though, except that efficiency and cool running is part of their appeal as well. I think they're used in pro sound amps more than home gear.

More about Class D: I guess there are some true digital amps out there that use digital logic circuits to control the switching power supply in a class D amp, but in most the modulation is strictly analog. If they can get the distortion down true digital amps might be The Next Big Thing in audio. Or not.</font>