Dan Devin's System

Welcome!

A sincere "thank you" for taking the time to post. It's refreshing to know that there are others out there with our affliction too.

Cool story !!! Thank you for taking the time to share it with everyone.

I can tell you this... this planet is getting pretty damn small.
We acquired all the paperwork, schematics, and drawing last year from a guy that said he saw them sitting out on top of a trash can, in a little electronics surplus store in Washington 10 or 15 years ago... He also said he saw a bunch of huge 30-40 pound Carver transformers, and had no idea what to do with them. He took the paperwork out of the garbage, but passed on the transformers.
Sounds to me, you guys were in the same store around the same time.

Being in Raleigh already, you better make your way over to CarverFest... or we all might have to make a little fieldtrip over to your place

We had a few tube amps there last year, and this year we are planning on bringing the new Silver-7's we are building.
It would be really cool to see yours as well.

Here's the little tube setup we had last year.




Oh yeah... by the way....
If you DO bring your amps along, you may want to keep a close eye on them then Bob's around...
Here's what happened when we turned out back on him last year

Thank you so very much for sharing. When it comes to audio, rambling is required.

Thanks, that's a great picture of Bob. The first time I met Bob was back in the early-mid 90's, I guess it was. It was at the Sahara Hotel at CES in Vegas which is where High -End Audio always had their show before it was torn down. Most of the rooms were tiny, terrible acoustics, and the power grid sucked so you could useually plan on trying to run your equipment on only around 100 volts. But in spite of all of that it, was a neat venue because of it's intimate nature (and because the Porn Industry also held their annual awards convention there at the same time-now that's a unique group of folks running around and displaying all of their wares!). Anyway I walked into one of the smallest rooms and there was this kind of average looking joe by himself bouncing off the walls in a room with almost no equipment but it was filled with this thunderous bass playing and the curtains to the sliding doors were popping out like someone was behind them kicking them. When I looked at the guys name tag and it said Bob Carver I was rather shocked. I had always figured this legend had to be at least 6'6" tall, with movie star looks. Anyway he was just the nicest, most unassuming guy. And what was up with the curtains? Bob was unvailing his new little subwoofer with the big sound and it was his way of showing how such a small, inobtrusive box could move a lot of air. To this day I think it is the most simple but effective demo I have ever seen at all of my years attending CES.
You know, if anyone would like to take a field trip to my house that would be great. Equipment should always be heard and evaluated within the context of a properly balanced system and I do have a pretty good setup here that is always a gratifying experience for the enthusiast. I have a large home, big pool, 11acres, and could accommodate a number of guys overnight if some don't mind roughing it a little. I could also introduce you to Kevin Carter who is the best resource a home constructor could ever have.
Looking at the pictures It would appear that my transformesr are larger than those(which are gorgeous, by the way). I think that Bob made two different versions of that amp didn't he? I have the schematics for the Silver 7 and the silver 6 transformers around here somewhere.
Thanks Guys-Dan

Actually, there are 2 different versions of Silver-7 tube amps. The 15 and 20 tube versions.
Talking with Bob we decided to re-name the 20 tube Silver-7 to Silver-9's
The name comes from the number of (pairs) of tubes in the amp...
Silver-6 has 6 pairs of tubes per chassis.. etc.
The now called Silver-9's are only using 18 of the 20 tubes for output, the other 2 are on the screen, so there are only 9 pairs per chassis.

The photo above has all 3 sets.
In front are the 15 tube Silver-7's
In the middle are the 12 tube Silver-6's
In the back on top, are the 20 tube Silver-9's (which are probably the transformers you used on your amps)

From what we have been able to get from Bob, there are only about 50 pairs of Silver-7's and 4 pairs of Silver-9 prototypes
The Silver-6's were all prototypes, and no idea how many are floating around.

Thanks for the invite as well... might just have to take you up on that in Sep. Maybe we can make a day trip of it, and I'm sure Bob would love to come and check out your system as well. ( He loves custom projects )


Tom ( Treitz3 ) and Skip are pretty close to you.

I want in on that day trip if no one minds. Beautiful setup.

It would be a pleasure to have you boys come visit. I seldom get a chance to meet with new enthusiasts and listen to music. I'll fire up the grill and burn some meat. I've got a wonderful album collection here that has something for just about anybody's tastes.

Yes, I'm certain that my transformers are those made for the later, larger version. I believe they were making 500 watts in Pentode the way bob was running them, as I recall. There was another set available at the time and I sure wish that I had bought them now. They'd make great door stops on a windy day!

I didn't mention before, but you know that you can wire these transformers for 240V operation, which I did. I have two dedicated 240volt outlets for them also. Makes a big difference in dynamics and quiter operation because 240 is balanced so it cancels out a lot of grunge that gets through on the single 120. I also had the good fortune of having been the developer of the subdivision where I live and knew the design engineer for the electric company so he gave me my own dedicated transformer at the street and ran a better grade of underground cable than was typical. I get great power delivery to the house.

I want in on that day trip if no one minds. Beautiful setup.

Me Too Roy !! I'd like to go & maybe we could ride over in a Prius if they have one.

Don' be afraid I can control the speed !!

It would be a pleasure to have you boys come visit. I seldom get a chance to meet with new enthusiasts and listen to music. I'll fire up the grill and burn some meat. I've got a wonderful album collection here that has something for just about anybody's tastes.

HAHAHA you have no idea what you have done now... There are usually 20-50 of us that show for CarverFest

We'll have to pick a day between Sep. 12th and the 18th I would guess. We will be arriving on the 10th, and usually get everything unpacked and setup on the 10th and 11th. Then we start packing up late Sunday the 19th, and leave the morning of the 20th. So I would think somewhere between the 12 and the 18 would be good.
The weekends are pretty busy and packed, as allot of the people that can only come for a day or 2 usually show up Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and then, are gone again.
I don't know if you can take a weekday off or something, that might make it really easy for everyone to make the trip over, and not be cutting into the weekends at all ??

You really should just come to CF and then we can make a trip back to your place with you. If you can swing the days off, it's a total blast !!! and an amazingly relaxing vacation at the same time.

If you haven't been to it yet, here is a link to the CarverFest threads: viewforum.php?f=141

How can you go wrong waking up to this...

Welcome to the forum DANDEVIN!!!!

I'm Toy Maker's son, and if you don't mind I would like to tag along with him when he goes over!!

I love new and odd stuff!!! Your amps are REALLY cool looking!!!!

Welcome to the forum, sir.

I smell a mini-Carverfest brewing.....BTW, I'm the "Tom" James was referring too. If you are interested, you are more than welcome to come to my pad and hear "Sparky" [my rig] for the first time prior to Carverfest. I live just south of Charlotte, NC.