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[Cornwalled]

Hey Guys,

Today, my father and I installed a home theater for a client, and replaced his old failed carver system. I was told he no longer had a use for the equipment, so it was given to me. I am thus charged with seeing what works and what doesn't.

Here's the lineup:

1. Carver MXR-130"The Receiver": This is the one Carver claimed sounded as good as seperates.

2. Carver DTL-200 CD Player: Has the Digital Time Lens and Time Domain Correction

3. Nakamichi BX-300 Cassette Deck: 3 head, 3 motor- this one looks good.

So, as I checked everything out, I started with the Nak. It needs the idler tire replacement- okay, I can do this myself. This is the unit I'm most excited about as I've wanted a Nak for years.

The CD Player needs a belt for the tray to open. Upon opening it manually (by just rotating the gear the belt drives) and putting in a CD I found the CD wobbles greatly, and sound quality is not too great compared with my modern Marantz. Probably not worth messing with.

The Carver Receiver initially sounded fine, but my nose picked up a faint burning smell, and as I put it closer, I could smell an area around the circuit board getting a little toasty- upon touching it it indeed felt hot around the front right area. Unplugged it and haven't touched it since. My question is this: Is it possible this receiver could be repaired relatively reasonably, or would it cost more than it's worth? It just looks like such an awesome piece, would seem to be a shame to throw it out if it could be put back into service. Also, are the magnetic field power amps good, quality, clean amps? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

-Jon

[tpg]

The receiver should be fixable. Does Carver put their schematics in the service manuals/owner's manuals? If so, that would make the situation much easier- you could track down the foul component.

It is most likely an old transistor or resistor that has seen the last of its days after heatink up repeatedly for years. How old is the unit? If it is several years old, I'd probably track down a replacement transistor and replace them all. Also get some new resistors in there (mainly just the large, high power resistors for setting bias and such). Replace any other resistors, transistors, etc. that look charred. Also, if the unit is 10+ years old, you might as well replace the electrolytic caps while you're in there.

And, if you decide, after all, that you don't want to try to save this guy, you might consider sending it up to me... I probably have some parts on hand a;ready. Even though I may not have the time or money to do it either now [:S]... (Just bought a new Class A power amp that may need the same treatment)

Hope this helps

[NOSValves]

I heard an all Carver system here locally and I thought it sounded way different then my Klipsch/tubes but great in its own way! I would think its well worth getting it fixed. Do some searching on eBay and see what the receiever would sell for and make your decision from that.

Craig

[Cornwalled]

Hey Guys,

It appears that service manuals are available on ebay for this receiver for cheap, so that could help. I haven't popped the hood yet, but am leaning towards what TPG said about a resistor or transistor, as the problem seems very localized. I also think it seems worthwhile saving- it's a nice unit, and in fantastic shape. Much better than the ones on ebay; no scratches or worn lettering anywhere, plus it still has the rack ears.

I'm going to order the idler tire for the Nak on Monday, so maybe I'll get a service manual for the receiver then too, there are some with Buy it Now on ebay. Unfortuantely I'm not that good with soldering, and little intricate parts of modern electronics. I'm better working in a '40s AM radio where things are bigger and not so close together. My father is very dexterous and talented with servicing electronics though, so if he's willing to give me a hand, perhaps we could ressurect it. Also, the Cd player seems to be performing a little better today, but still skips occasionally.

Craig, while I have your attention: I have a cool little Heathkit AA-151 that needs to be recapped,and I don't trust myself to do it. Would you be willing to do it if I sent it to you? It also needs a new volume control. One side of the dual concentric is mistracking, so one channel gets louder than the other. I've heard good things about your work.

Thanks,
Jon

[Cornwalled]

Hello again,

I popped open the carver Receiver, and it doesn't look good. Right where I smelled the heat, there is a four pack of identical resistors. Beneath them, the area surrounding all 4 on the circuit board is black. It would appear that this has happened before. From the marks I can only deduce that all four overheated, thus meaning it is something upstream. There is a connector that leads to another circuit board with the filter caps, and various coils and other circuitry. I think this is going to be beyond my repair capability.

I see on Carver's website they do service their equipment. I'll have to weigh the repair cost versus the real world value of the component and decide whether it's worth it for me to have it fixed.

-Jon

[tpg]

That doesn't sound very good...

I now have electronics problems of my own. I picked up my Class A amp and it appears that one channel is not running Class A... In fact, I don't even think the output transistors are running at all. The left channel heatsink is not even warm- it is COLD, actually. The right channel is hot as heck (as it should be). Also, the left channel runs about 30 seconds after power off, while the right dies after 3 or so. If anyone knows a cause of my problem... I'd be interested to know. I am perplexed (and QUITE sad) right now.

[Duke Spinner]

those recievers are prone to smoke

the dtl 200 doesn't play cdr's

the nak should be a keeper

[Klipschguy]

I had one those Carver receivers for a number of years. Absolute junk in terms of sound and reliability, IMHO. I gave it away for free.

[OldGuy]

Sorry Hit the post button to soon

[OldGuy]

Hello Jon. Have a Carver rcvr. that has driven my Khorns for a lot of years. The four resistors you mention I replaced with a higher wattage and away from the. board. If you can do this you will probably find you scored a receiver that might please you, at the right price.

[tpg]

Yes... replacing the resistors may help (and may bring it back to life completely). Just because the PCB is blackened doesn't mean anything is damaged. Find the correct value and go up a wattage step or two. If they are 3W, get 5W. If they are 5W, maybe get two 5W of double the value and put them in parallel. And, most importantly, mount them above the board about a centimeter or so to allow the heat to go somewhere other than the board, as was mentioned above. Hopefully the burned out resistors didn't cause any of the transistors to go out.

[Cornwalled]

Hey Guys,

I see you mentioned replacing the resistors with a slightly higher rating. I am a little worried about this. My understanding was that something happened that is passing too much current through the resistors, and this is why they are getting hot. Wouldn't it seem that I should address what went wrong upstream and is causing too much current too pass through? I'm worried that upping the current value will only allow this problem to escalate. Any thoughts?

Also, I've been trying to find a belt for that Carver cd player. Any body know of anywhere I could find something like that? I'm thinking maybe a multi pack of belts, maybe some for a vcr?

-Jon

[Istari]

Jon!,

How are you bud?, are those old cornwalls holding up OK?

I've got a soldering iron and a few resistors if you want to try your luck.

I've restored a couple of tube amps, so i could give you a few pointers on soldering.

[OldGuy]

I run a Carver Receiver and had to take the four resistors and raise them above the board. Also I increased the wattage. No problems afterwards. Another problem that came up was distortion. This was due to bad contacts in the relay used for A/B speaker selection. Sometimes I could self clean the relay by many times switching betwee A & B but I finally pulled the relay ,cleaned contacts and retensioned it. Well worth the effort and the RECEIVER still drives my Khorns.

Hope you get it working ok. Carver produced some good equipment and this unit drives the Klipsch speakers more than adequately.

Norm

[Cornwalled]

Hey Jim!

Glad to hear from you! The Cornwalls are holding up great! They're still in the same condition as when I bought them from you, except I replaced the one non-Klipsch woofer with a genuine K-33. Otherwise all is well. I would love to take you up on your offer. Why don't you shoot me an e-mail and we can set something up?

I see you've acquired some killer Scott gear. How do you like it?

-Jon

[Istari]

The 222 was rebuilt by NOSValves, I rebuilt the other two. The 99A was a challenge since it was built the year I was born (1953).

You're not going to sell those Corns again are you???

[Marvel]

Jon,

I understand your concern with upping the wattage rating on the

resistors. The problem is the originals are too small so they tend to

break down quicker over time.

Replacing them shouldn't be too hard at all. If the traces on the board

are still good, you can clean them off and replace the resistors as

mentioned above, leaving the leads a bit longer so they mount away from

the board. If there is room and you are careful, you could mount the

resistors on a heatsink, to cool them even more. Believe me, it will

work wonders.

Bruce

[Klipschguy]

Geeetings OldGuy (from one seasoned guy to another),

I'm not trying to disparage the Carver receiver, but I used one for almost 10 years with my Cornwalls. I had to do many home repairs on it (phono section, speaker relays, dubbing switch, et cetera), but I kept it since I thought I was getting "great sound" with my Cornwalls. I was forever reading articles in Stereo Review about ole Bob Carver's magnetic field amplifiers, so was pretty excited about the piece of equipment at one time.

Let me say that this is a quiet unit, it's powerful, and has a decent tuner section. However, I was in for one big fat surprise when I whimsically hooked up a low cost, high current Yamaha receiver (I wanted a remote). I expected some sacrifice in sound for convenience.

BUT WHOA!...The bass of the Cornwalls sprang to life. The bass was much bigger, tighter, deeper and more powerful than I ever got from the Carver. I was really ticked that Carver had been tricking me for so long...

I gave it away with no regrets. I felt like the guy who hears Cornwalls after proudly owning 901's for so many years.

My Fisher 500c (in use currently) also has better bass than the Carver, but sounds a little fatter (less tight) than the Yamaha.

Let me say that as a rule I NEVER rag on somebody's equipment choices, but this was just a little too close to home. Just for kicks, try any good high current amplifier with your Khorns. Who knows, you may have a similar experience as I did. If the Carver sounds best, trust your ears and forgive my overbearing opinion.

Who knows? Maybe my Carver unit was bad from day one.

Warm regards,

Andy

[JeffDurbin]

Even if he ends up not enjoying it as much as hoped, it will have more eBay value as a rebuilt, functioning receiver.

[Cornwalled]

My father said he'd take a look at itand we'll see about replacing those resistors.

We'll have to see how it sounds when it's up and going. I have a Marantz SR7000 here; I think that would be a worthy comparison unit.

-Jon

P.S. Jim-nope, I'm keeping the Corns this time! Though I do have a single LaScala to sell, but it's more beat up than what you like I think. All your Klipsch gear is in such great shape. Plus it's black, so it would stick out like a sore thumb in your WO rig.