Should I was my time with Vintage Carver Silver Speakers???

[ROMisONLINE]

Hey all, I found what seems to be a good deal on a pair of Carver Silver floor standing speakers and a Crown XLS 2000 high-density power amplifier.There’s also a Yamaha Natural Sound AV Receiver RX-V800 all for like $600. I watch movies mainly and sometimes listen to vinyl or bluetooth music through my phone to my Marantz avr. Right now I’m using mostly Emotiva gear a 9.2 setup and really need to replace my floor standing speakers, when I ran across this deal. I was just planning on getting a pair of T2+, but was wondering if I would benefit more from the Carvers. I have read they were great speakers but that was a very long time ago and was just wondering if they were something I should even bother with. I’m sure Speaker technology has advanced quite a bit since the 90’s and was wondering if you guys think money would be better served with something else. Thank you all for any opinions or info and have a Happy Thanksgiving ( if you celebrate that, or whatever it happens to be). Thanks.

 

[lovinthehd]

I had the Carver Amazing Loudspeakers but the Platinum edition. If you can pull them out in the room some they're pretty nice speakers, and that whole setup for $600 sounds like a reasonable deal. For $600 I'd definitely find use for at least the amp and speakers (don't really need the receiver but for 2.1 might be better than my old 2ch preamps). I'd probably set them up as a 2ch system to start in any case, just to play with

 

[ROMisONLINE]

@lovinthehd Thanks for the reply. I was wondering, how would you rate them for movies? I’ve seen/listened to peoples youtube videos of them and although I’m sure that’s not the way to place judgement but it seemed that the sound, while filling the space, seemed a bit airy or etherial. I’m sure musically it would sound otherworldly but I’m wondering if it wouldn’t make movies sound a bit distant or unclear because of it’s airy-ness? Any thoughts on that? I plan to go listen myself but just want to know what to expect so I don’t waste their or my time. Thanks again.

 

[Pogre]

I don't think those Carvers are known for exceptional dynamics so I'd kinda question their use for movie watching if you approach reference levels, but they do have their fans for 2 channel music listening. I think of them along the lines of good electrostats.

 

[lovinthehd]

@lovinthehd Thanks for the reply. I was wondering, how would you rate them for movies? I’ve seen/listened to peoples youtube videos of them and although I’m sure that’s not the way to place judgement but it seemed that the sound, while filling the space, seemed a bit airy or etherial. I’m sure musically it would sound otherworldly but I’m wondering if it wouldn’t make movies sound a bit distant or unclear because of it’s airy-ness? Any thoughts on that? I plan to go listen myself but just want to know what to expect so I don’t waste their or my time. Thanks again.

Never used them that way, altho my buddy I bought them from did for a while....but they have their limits. I listened to mostly rock, some jazz with them. The ribbons blew once when my buddy had them, and I bought them as he waited for new ribbons from Carver, he installed the new ribbons at my place. I used them for a while in my rec room and got them fairly loud a few times....then I moved them up to a new business I started with some friends as part of our lounge/party setup; one of those friends managed to blow the ribbons again, literally turned the volume to full to see what would happen with a lot of amp behind them....I got rid of them after that (plus damaged a couple of the woofers in getting them back home). I never thought of them as airy or otherworldly, they had a good sound, though. I actually felt the open air woofers needed a sub in hindsight, the bass was never as impressive as the number of drivers made me expect (but didn't have subs back then).