Need help for carver amazing

[H20doctor]

I bought a pair of carver amazing loudspeakers and need to know if they are 4 ohm or 8 ohm ? . speakers have the honey comb covers..




I am the 3 rd owner of these speakers and have had them now for 8 months.... i got them from a estate sale.. I have wanted these speakers since i was 17 years old. My neighbor worked at speaker lab in seattle and i used to help him after school put together passive crossovers for speaker lab speakers, Das 3 , das 7 , and das 8, series speakers... I got to hear and see the very first production of the carver Towers speakers... I also got to see and help on the production of them at the factory in Ballard.. Anyway I would go into magnolia High Fi and hear them in one of there listening rooms and it was love at first sight... they were being drivin by 2 500 watt caver amps and it was insane!!! I couldnt get over how crystal clear and crisp the sound was, the amazing clarity of the ribbon tweeters, and the pounding bass !!!! I believe at the time they were 1800.00 Ea in 1997..
I am running a small sony Home receiver on them right now at 70 watts per channel, but its not even close to what I know these speakers are capeable of!!! So i am looking at getting a good amp for them and having atleast 250 watts per speaker, OR ? what do you reccomend to make them sing ? anyway I have had my dream come true and i have my speakers !!!

[TNRabbit]

First of all; WELCOME to the forum!

Those appear to be the Original Amazing with Platinum Upgrade. They should be pretty close to 8 ohms (test for yourself with a multimeter). They look like they're in very good condition! I'm surprised you don't easily shut down your Sony trying to push them. If you like your music loud, I'd recommend something with plenty of CURRENT and in excess of 500 wpc....HOWEVER...

My recommendation is to get as much power as you can afford. What is your price range for an amp? What other components do you use...Preamp/CDP/etc.? What type of music you do spend most of your time listening to?

[H20doctor]

How can I tell if they are upgraded amazings VS original ??
As of now I don't have any pre amps or a amp.. My budget for an amp set up is 600.00 to a 1000 .. I've been looking at Crown amps and Mackie amps at Guitar center/ musicians friend.. But wondering if I should scower ebay for a carver M series amp

[skip]

If they have the honeycomb woofers and the 60" ribbon as your's do, as Rabbit said they are the Platinum upgraded originals. The originals had two 30" ribbons per side and are 4 ohm. The upgrade swapped the two 30" ribbons for a 60" ribbon and changed the crossovers. The originals were truely amp killers as they would dip down to 1 ohm, a load few amps can handle. The Plats are 8 ohm (actually around 6.5) and are much more forgiving, but they do require massive amounts of power to reach their potential. The Carver Silver 9t monoblocks are perfect for these speakers, but used ones run around $1400 a pair. Silver 7t's will also do fine, but don't have quite the bass punch of the 9t's. Both amps run 575 watts into 8 ohms and will handle a 1 ohm load with no problem. Tube amps will drive them at a much lower wattage, but are much more expensive when you go over 150 watts, which they would need to be. A Carver C-1 preamp is a good choice and should be less than $200 in good condition. Once you get your power lined up, You'll love these speakers, but You'll kill your poor Sony reciever if you try to get the max out of the Plats at only 70 WPC.

[TNRabbit]

How can I tell if they are upgraded amazings VS original ??
As of now I don't have any pre amps or a amp.. My budget for an amp set up is 600.00 to a 1000 .. I've been looking at Crown amps and Mackie amps at Guitar center/ musicians friend.. But wondering if I should scower ebay for a carver M series amp

Doc, the honeycomb woofers were only used on the Original Amazing Loudspeakers, and you have the 60" ribbon (Originals had 2 30" ribbons), so you have a pair of the Originals that had the Platinum Upgrade performed on them (60" ribbon, changed crossover).

If you can swing one (there are several on ebay right now), a Sunfire 2-channel amp would be WONDERFUl with these (@ $600-900 usually). A pair of Silver 7 or 9t amps would work wonderfully, too, but at a premium price (in the $1100-$2200 range). The TFM-75 would have more than sufficient power, but they are priced in the stratosphere ($1500 and up) and rare as hen's teeth. A TFM-55 would be pretty darned sweet, and if I'm not mistaken, someone on the forum is selling at least one of them. If you don't pound on it, a TFM-45 would probably fit the bill....

Incidentally, here's the run of Carver Amazing Loudspeakers, in order of appearance:

ALS Originals
ALS Silver
ALS Platinum
ALS Platinum Mk IV (some crossover tweaking only)
ALS Platinum upgrade for Orginals
AL-III
AL-III+

Again, what are you other components/setup/room config?

[engtaz]

Welcome H20doctor and Congrats on some fantastic speakers.

[thuffman03]

Welcome to the forum. Wonderfull set of speakers!

[F1nut]

I've been looking at Crown amps and Mackie amps

Pro amps lack the sound quality required for home audio, avoid them at all cost.

[TNRabbit]

How can I tell if they are upgraded amazings VS original ??
As of now I don't have any pre amps or a amp.. My budget for an amp set up is 600.00 to a 1000 .. I've been looking at Crown amps and Mackie amps at Guitar center/ musicians friend.. But wondering if I should scower ebay for a carver M series amp

You could always get THESE:

[H20doctor]

Yes its nice to be here with all the carver NUTS ... I listen to all types of music from metal to Jazz.. I am mostly interested in getting a good amp for when I watch movies , and that's mostly when I turn on my amazings. The sony does work and it doesn't clip which is very surprising.... But I do need to find an amp. Carver amps would prob be great, But I am worried about 2 things. 1) ebay and getting a piece of junk that only runs for a couple of months and then breaks. 2) Repair on a carver amp, cause there prob hard to fix and who still does it ???
The M 35 , M 45 amps look good and I've seen them go for around 2 to 4 hundred..

[TNRabbit]

Rita (who worked at Carver/Sunfire for YEARS) and Bob himself opened a flat-fee shop a couple of months ago:

Quote:

Hi Everyone,
I am Lisa from Rita's Vintage Audio Repair. Here is some helpful info:

Here is our info:

Rita's Vintage Audio Repair
1920 Bickford Ave.
Snohomish, WA 98290
360-568-4700
ritasvintageaudio@gmail.com

Our Charges:

$175.00 Flat Fee
$175.00 for active drivers ONLY if it needs it
$75.00 for passive drivers ONLY if it needs it
$75.00 for tech labor time on unit over 3hrs.
$ 20.00 ONLY IF box & packing material are needed or wanted.
Customer pays Shipping & Handling both ways.
We ship UPS Ground for return UNLESS customer chooses otherwise, also we insure for $999.00 for return.
Please include all contact info when shipping to us. We will not ship your unit back until we receive payment.
Billing will occur at the time of return shipment. Please include the best time to contact you for payment.
We warranty any work We performed for one year.

Any questions please feel free to call.
P.S. Occasionally Mr. Carver finds time to drop by & we can get him to sign units! Whistle

Thank You,
Lisa Selph

End Quote.

SO, if you can pick up a slightly used unit on the cheap, you can get it rebuilt for a VERY good price by the one's who actually made it!

[H20doctor]

Bickford ave in snohomish is about 20 mins from my house..
So what about EQ ? If I have the Pre amp and 2 carver amps... What about adjusting EQ levels.. ? By the way my favorite movie on the amazings is transformers .. Good Night there is some serious Bass and thump in this movie. I want to shake the house with these speakers !!!!! I want to feel Blood drip out of my ears from Bass damage .. Ha Ha Ha Ha

[TNRabbit]

Why would you want an EQ?

[F1nut]

At a maximum output of @ 113dB, you'll never get blood to drip from your ears. :roll:

[H20doctor]

Ya I guess you have a point there ... I really wouldn't need an EQ now that I think about it..
So who elses on this Board Owns amazings, and what are there amp set ups ???
Has anyone posted video on Youtube of there speakers shaking a glass off water ?