1.5 Monoblocks

[austinstephens]

Hi everyone...

This past winter I became quite bored both with myself and my Carver system..I have a pair of origional Amazings, and as we all know are very hard to drive..I used a TFM-55. While this is a wonderful amp. the Amazings would spank it pretty hard when the volume was up..I was scanning Ebay one evening and came across some Clair Brothers Carver 1.5 monoblocks for sale..These amps powered concert monitors for some pretty big acts, The Stones for one.. and were installed in huge racks, about 10 per..They said no hums, bad fans, cleaned, and produced 1200 watts into 4 ohms...I was extremely skeptical..My Amazings will sometimes dip to 2 ohms..The asking price was $250.00 each..I put in an offer of 200 apiece, and I was the proud owner on them..

When I recieved them, wow..These were some old road dogs..Beat up and extremely dirty..But...When I hooked everything up, they were right on the no hums..There were quiet. But the fans sounded like chain saws..The faces were quite scratched and the inner chasis was very dirty, but wow, what power they produced. I reseated all the rows of power transistors, cleaned the heatsinks and the pan below them, replaced the 50/80 V Capacitors, repaired several cold solder joints, and cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned..I had an old PM 1200 that didn't work, but had new fans installed, and used those. I could tell they were electrically maintained, as some solder joints were new, as were some resistors and diodes. I checked rail voltages and adjusted the biases.. They weren't too far off..The power cords were only a foot long, because of the racks they were mounted in.. So I replaced the cords with PS Audio power cords...My last delimma was the metal covers and faceplates..I decided to have the covers power coated in black, and the faceplates in dark metallic silver..The only drawback is they now have no output level graphs, as the power coating covered them up..I work in aviation, and am designing some with an avionics labeling machine we have at work..I purchased some brushed aluminum feet for them, and they look great..Some folks complain of the fan noise..Mine are very quiet, and if I can even barely hear them, some volume cures that!!

Now, the amps look and sound wonderful..while the pro amps can be a bit harsh sometimes, with speaker placement and tweaks, they sound wonderful, and have plenty of power. I mean, these amps kick ass..I can crank the hell out of them, and the amps barely get warm..The TFM, I could have fried an egg on...So, with a little bit of elbow grease, a schematic, plenty of electrical cleaner, power coating, some potting compound, a few beers, and plenty of cold winter nights, I now own a pair of Carver Monoblocks that look good and sound even better..I love it when a gamble pays off...

[thuffman03]

Very cool story and good job on the restoration!

[TNRabbit]

They look fantastic! Glad the gamble paid off for you~

Thanks for the pics!

[MRHP]

Man those things look brand new, nice work. I love the pro amps, they kick butt.

[BrianT]

They look very good, real nice job.

Brain

[kingman]

Great story, work, and preserve the Carver sound!!!! Congrats and enjoy the music!!!!

[Snoop65]

[engtaz]

S W E E T

[Wardsweb]

Very nice job refurbishing those amps. Now you not only have the joy of running great amps but the satisfaction that only comes from doing it yourself.

[Don]

[austinstephens]

Thank you for all the nice comments on my amps..I'm very proud of how they came out..I'd love to bring them to Carverfest and have Bob sign both of them..

It was a lot of hard tedious work, and without really knowing the outcome..There were only 10 of these amps for sale, and I knew once they were gone, they were gone...So, I purchased a spare and refurbished it also..I will post more pics soon...