Operational status of Carver and Phase gear

I finally started checking out my gear to see what was working.

Carver CT 29v - Powered up, looked good for 10 seconds, went dark, volume control started turning. Bummer, I was pretty sure this was good

1st TFM 15 CB - powered up all meters lit up look good

2nd TFM 15CB - Powered up , meters are dark, but the meter needles bump a little on power up

Phase Pre-Amp - Powers up and won't turn off

Phase 400 - Doesn't power up, further examination yields a blown fuse. We'll get a new one and see what happens.

Man that sucks on my CT 29V I was pretty sure that was good.

Oh well, that's all for now

I think you did about par for amps electronics stored away. We forget WHY we stored them away (for instance, that Phase). Sounds like a fun little project getting them all working again.

Hey, remind me not to let you touch my gear! or even look at my gear! You got some bad component luck! Maybe take a look at your wall voltage and "ground". Maybe something is not right there?? Thanks for the update!

The Phase Pre Amp just has a bad on off switch. The Amp is definitely dead. Those i think I will send off for service. They are pretty classic and probably worth keeping.

The DOA TFM 15cb and CT29V, I'm checking to see what it would cost to fix the CT29v. I'm just not sure if they are worth fixing, if the Pre amp isn't too expensive, I'll probably send them in.

I'll let you know what I figure out.

You do raise a great question though, I have no idea what the power was like in my old house. After the divorce I moved in with my parents, and well, at 89 and 86, it's kind of hard to move out at this point.

But my question is, what are you guys using for, I don't know if power conditioners or surge surpressors are the right term?

Thanks

Tinpan

On the CT29v, spray it out with compressed air...a canned duster will do and spray every contact point and potentiometer with a good deoxit. Keep messing with it, turning on and off. Wiggle the wires inside(with power off of course) and be persistent. Sometimes equipment that has set up just needs some use to get it to working. It worked for me on a cd deck. Maybe will for you. I would deoxit all of the stuff and keep playing around with it IMHO. Good luck!

It's good to see good advice being passed on~

[quote="tinpan"]
You do raise a great question though, I have no idea what the power was like in my old house. After the divorce I moved in with my parents, and well, at 89 and 86, it's kind of hard to move out at this point.

But my question is, what are you guys using for, I don't know if power conditioners or surge surpressors are the right term?

Thanks

Hello tinpan; In my opinion this is something everyone seems to overlook (but not all) wall voltage. There has been several discussions here on surges, conditioners, power cables, etc. This is my take on it; Anything PS Audio you can't go wrong. Install dedicated line/s depending on your current pull from your amp. Some amps pull a lot needing a dedicated line 20 amp. Install on a dedicated line this > http://www.psaudio.com/ps/products/deta ... ccessories
It has been suggested to plug amps in direct to the wall (by themselves), that is why I installed two Soloist behind my gear. I also run a juicebar II direct from one Soloist > http://www.psaudio.com/ps/products/deta ... ?cat=power Stay away from cheat power strips! My voltage runs 127 volts with 0 ground, the Carver amps seem to like voltage higher than say 115 - 120. As far as conditioners (I don't have one, but will someday) there are several out there if I can speak for everyone here, like "of course" PS Audio, Monster Power, Richard Grey to name a few. PS Audio > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL1Wjeq7eHY that is pretty expensive, but if your looking at conditioners might as well get a "power re-generator". The PS audio Power Plant 300 and 600's are also very popular > http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl? ... -Plant-Reg
Some also say amp direct to wall, all source components feed off a conditioner. Just some food for though. Remember, it all starts at the WALL.

Cool, that's exactly what I am looking for. I think when it's all said and done I am going to end up with a Sunfire stack running my Home Theatre and a Carver stack for stereo. Plus I'll set my Phase up again once it's re-conditioned. The wall my amps are on are finished on the side my stereo is in and unfinished on the other side so it would be real easy to hook up those soloist. Plus there is an unused 220v line over there from the old air conditioner. I'll bet I could break that into two dedicated amp lines.

Since the bug has hit, it's worth it to run the power protection correctly.

Thanks

Tinpan

Cool, that's exactly what I am looking for. I think when it's all said and done I am going to end up with a Sunfire stack running my Home Theatre and a Carver stack for stereo. Plus I'll set my Phase up again once it's re-conditioned. The wall my amps are on are finished on the side my stereo is in and unfinished on the other side so it would be real easy to hook up those soloist. Plus there is an unused 220v line over there from the old air conditioner. I'll bet I could break that into two dedicated amp lines.

Since the bug has hit, it's worth it to run the power protection correctly.

Thanks

Tinpan

Your welcome, hope this helps. I just remembered something one asked me about my power. Do you change a lot of light bulbs? haha. If so, you got bad power! Luckily my answer was no.

Kingman,

Thanks for the tip. I did remove the cover and check/wiggle all of the wires. I was surprised that it was actually pretty clean inside. Since my electronics background is rather" digital" ie, turn it on and it works good, turn it off and it turns off, also good, that's probably about all I will do at this point.

I think the Ct-29v, and the two TFM 15-cbs are going to be sold for parts or for someone else to resurrect. I am looking at a pair of M-500s, a C-5 and a SDA 450 to replace those units . That should give me a pretty fun Carver stack to play around with. If I need to refurb the M500s down the road, then i think that's a better use of funds. I've been eyeing some Hereseys and Cornwalls locally on CL and I think that would be a cool set up.

The Phase Linears will be sent off for refurb. That would give me a second stereo unit to play around with.

Silver-7t, Thanks for the tip on the Soloist and juice bar. I can covert two existing outlets and add a third. That would give me three different circuits dedicated for amps. It looks like the Soloists are rated for 15 amps, do you think that's enough?

Funny thing about the light bulbs, no I don't change them very frequently, but I was called sparky at a company I used to work for. Within six months both a company car and a company truck I was driving caught fire. I also had an event filled weekend where I lost my house, almost lost my job, got run over by a tractor trailer, was bitten multiple times by both a full sized cayman
and an alligator and caught several rattlesnakes. Oh and there was another weekend where we sank my buddies car at a Grateful Dead concert. Ah, but I digress, I'd give you all the details but that's another story for another day. Never did miss a day of work though, was late and for some reason there was always a crowd at my desk to hear my late excuses.

BTW, when can I check your stereo out?

Tinpan

Oh, do have one more question. Is the M-500 rated at 250 WPC or 200 WPC at 8 ohms? I'm seeing different specs on a couple different websites.

Thanks

Tinpan

The M-500 (my favorite amp) is rated at 250 WPC.

[quote="tinpan"]Kingman,
Thanks for the tip on the Soloist and juice bar. I can covert two existing outlets and add a third. That would give me three different circuits dedicated for amps. It looks like the Soloists are rated for 15 amps, do you think that's enough?

Why Hello Sparky!!! That was a funny story! The Soloist is rated 15 amp but will also handle 20 amp with no problem.

Interesting you asked about the M-500. I'm working on one right now, and noticed that the triac had been replaced. Of course I was concerned, because triacs are pretty stout devices, and was worried about the field coil. It seems that the M-500 stock has only a 16 Amp triac, and this was also a 16A device, yet the M1.0t has a 25A triac. It got me to thinking that if you pull too much current and it rides through the fuse (an MDL-10 slo-blo fuse) and the triac blows, what happens (which was probably what happened to the original triac). I guess the failure mode was open rather than short, or the field coil would have been toast. What's important is not to overdraw the current into an M-500(t). I don't think I would put one on a 20A circuit.

Great that's perfect. The other amp I was looking at was the M 1.5t. The M-500 was recommended over that, which I thought was interesting.

Good advice on the 15a, that makes things easier because the two existing lines are 15 amp i believe.

Thanks

Tinpan