New Carver gear???

Dear Fellow carver fans,

I have a dumb question or two because i am a little confused...

Are the new "pro level" (ex ZR an Xi series)Carver amplifiers designed by Bob Carver??

and are they made in America???


Also has anyone owned or used these???

I looked around on http://www.carverpro.com but i couldnt really figure it out.

I got this from the Carverpro site

Carver Professional was purchased in November of 1995 by Phoenix Gold International, Inc. of Portland Oregon. Carver Professional, as a division of Phoenix Gold International, designs, sells and manufactures state-of-the-art, high quality amplifiers for the professional and commercial audio markets. Carver Professional continues to be responsible for the servicing of the professional amplifier products that were manufactured at Carver Corporation prior to the purchase by Phoenix Gold International.

So i translate that to...Bob Carver made the designs but is not really a part of the company?

Does anyone have any experience with the new gear?

I don't think any thing after the PM and PT units are Bob's design. I think after 1995 were all Phoenix Gold's design with the Carver Pro name that they bought. I was told that when Bob Carver left Carver he took his power supply paten with him to Sunfire, and it evolved to the power supply that is in the Sunfire's today. This is all hearsay though so take it with a grain off salt.

That same "tracking downconverter" power supply is roughly the same one that is in the original Lightstar amplifier, that Bob was working on when he left the company. He just either changed it 10%, or had some agreement that he was going to take it with him also. I believe that he made some slight changes to the original Sunfire, that he would have done to the Lightstar had he stayed with Carver. In other words , he didnt give away ALL of his secrets. But, I was told that BOTH are not "radically" different from each other.

The Zr models are actually made with the TRIPATH modules, hence they are "digital" amplifiers. Absolutely NOT Bob's design. However , they have gotten some pretty decent press a while back. Some companies even "mod" them into what they call a pretty awesome amp , i guess. Havent heard one, but you can read all about them on the net.

AFAIK, Tripat is out of business and parts are unobtainium.