When amps go bad.

[Speedball]

I have an opportunity to buy a couple 250 watt stereo Carver monoblocks for 350.00 each. I tested one at home and it cuts in and out sometimes. Just using one makes both my RF7's sound spectacular.

Can these amps be sent somewhere for an overhaul or rebuild to bring them up to specs and would it be expensive to do so?

..........thanks.

[Duke Spinner]

for $ 350 .. they outta work fine .....silver 7's ...???

[Speedball]

M-500T 250 watt per side stereo amps with "useless"[] meters.

[Lurch]

I wouldn't spend $700 on a pair of old Carver "monoblocks" when they need updates and service. When you had the one working M-500t on there, how high were the "useless" meters going? This could at least provide some sense of how much power you really need. Then, do some looking on Audiogon or ebay and see what you can do with your $700. There's a Threshold S/250 on audiogon right now for $795.

If you absolutely want to go with the bridged M-500t set, you can always send them back to Carver for repair/update. I've seen several ebay ads where folks had sent them back to the factory for updates/repair. That would probably be the optimal answer.

Jeff

[MrMcGoo]

Sunfire services any amp designed by Bob Carver. You may want to call them for prices. They are located in Snohomish Washington.

Bill

[Speedball]

Thanks for the replies guys.......the seven hundred does sound a bit stiff for something that needs repair. I may contact Carver anyway to get an idea what repairs could cost. Audiogon does have lots of nice stuff too.

[pauln]

Useless meters?

Do they work at all? If not, they may have been disconnected - could be reconnected. I had a M 500t (250W/ch) and the meters are one of it's best features. There is a pair of white round flat things inside that will accept a small flat blade screwdriver that allows adjusting the sensitivity of the meters. There is another pair closer to the outputs - don't change these as they control the DC offset (which should be as close to zero as possible). You can put a VOM in parallel with the speakers to check this.

These are good amps as SS go - power in the low end, strong middle, and easy on the ears highs. Lots of folks buy a bunch of them, bridge them for 500W and use them for HT.

Paul

[djk]

The Carver M500T is a good sounding amp, but... marginal in stereo at 4 ohms, or at 8 ohms in bridge mode. The outputs are just not heavy enough. They may be replaced with the M1.5T outputs and then they will be OK, but not into 4 ohms bridged.

There is nothing simple that can be done to make this amp reliably drive 4 ohms in mono.

The flat rate repair schedule on this amp (with round trip shipping) is more than $200.

I would consider buying the one that works and upgrade the outputs, or just pass on the deal. A set of the M1.5T outputs from Digi-Key will set you back about $60 or so.

Also consider an M1.0T, it has more power, will not need the oututs changed, and sounds better. You should be able to find one for the same or less than the M500T. It has an LED power display that is quite accurate, and will put out 400W into 8 ohms on program material.

[Speedball]

Paul,

Maybe I shouldnt have said "useless meters" because I could not see the reason why they are on the amp other than to look fancy. They both work on both amps although I dont know how accurate they really are. Thanks for the info.

djk,

Thanks for your reply, it is an interesting bit of information you have there.

Seven hundred bucks does not seem like the deal of the century. This hifi shop is non negotiable on all their used and new stuff. They think whatever they get in on trade is made of gold.

Someone mentioned on another thread a lot of dealers are turning to home theatre as their bread and butter and two channel is slowly slipping away.[W].......but not if I can help it...[:^)]

[krispykoilz]

The Carver M500T is a good sounding amp, but... marginal in stereo at 4 ohms, or at 8 ohms in bridge mode. The outputs are just not heavy enough. They may be replaced with the M1.5T outputs and then they will be OK, but not into 4 ohms bridged.

There is nothing simple that can be done to make this amp reliably drive 4 ohms in mono.

The flat rate repair schedule on this amp (with round trip shipping) is more than $200.

I would consider buying the one that works and upgrade the outputs, or just pass on the deal. A set of the M1.5T outputs from Digi-Key will set you back about $60 or so.

Also consider an M1.0T, it has more power, will not need the oututs changed, and sounds better. You should be able to find one for the same or less than the M500T. It has an LED power display that is quite accurate, and will put out 400W into 8 ohms on program material.

Thanks for sharing that djk, I was just reading about something similiar yesterday and until then would have thought that the extra slew rate might have made an improvement in bridged mode. Now the article I was reading makes more sense. Cheers. Oh, for anyone that wants to read/look at the article I'm talking about just copy and paste the link below.

http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/725/index.html