Carver Crimson 275 Review (Tube Amp)

[restorer-john]

The advertised technical specifications of the product should be immediately ammended to represent the actual capabilities of the amplifier. All purchasers should be advised/contacted with an offer of remedy.

Bob Carver was around in 1974 when the FTC mandated Amplifier Rule brought all manufacturers kicking and screaming to the honesty table. US manufacturers and consumers benefited for many decades.

And for the record, the Amplifier Rule is still in force, albeit watered down a little, but not in repsect of the advertised power output. The shortfall in actual, versus advertised power into the various specified loads with this particular product, is shameful.

 

[restorer-john]

The man just offered a full refund to anyone wishes to return their amp …..

The onus should be on the seller/s to provide the remedy, not on the purchasers.

 

[john2017]

The registration is by him. Whether he wrote that text, is another matter.

Might I be so bold as to suggest you reach out to Mr Carver and request a sample directly from him, with the updates, for purposes of a fair series of tests that actually include listening to it, and perhaps query him about how he tests the amp to get his claimed power output?

If he does so, then perhaps this can truly be put to rest.

 

[BurntFinger]

Again, Bob sold the company. It`s not on him. Now. Although, he`s likely to try to fix it.

 

[Larry B. Larabee]

And there it is.

Patience is a virtue.

"His name is Robert Paulson"
Nice one!

 

[john2017]

Again, Bob sold the company. It`s not on him. Now. Although, he`s likely to try to fix it.

By making the offer to repair or buy back, he is taking the responsibility for this. That means he can do more than I knew...

 

[BurntFinger]

So you do know Bob.

 

[traderitch]

Again, Bob sold the company. It`s not on him. Now. Although, he`s likely to try to fix it.

The message and content is from Bob.

 

[john2017]

So you do know Bob.

I said I do in damn near every post I have made, including my first one on this forum... go take a look. There you will find a picture of him with one of my amps.

 

[BurntFinger]

OK Noosh

 

[amirm]

Might I be so bold as to suggest you reach out to Mr Carver and request a sample directly from him, with the updates, for purposes of a fair series of tests that actually include listening to it, and perhaps query him about how he tests the amp to get his claimed power output?

No. This unit was purchased brand new from a dealer just a couple of weeks ago. It is what customers would have gotten. I am not testing another unit. The right response is for the company to measure the amp now and show different results than ours. Despite the discussion around this amp going on almost two months, we still have not had this.

 

[amirm]

The man just offered a full refund to anyone wishes to return their amp …..

Since he is not responsible for manufacturing or sale of the amp, I suspect that promise is made by others, not Bob. That aside, remember that many of the owners won't be reading our forum. They deserve a notice that what they bought has lower power than specified. And may have safety issues.

 

[john2017]

And you stopped short of listening to it. Could be that the guy that built it had a bad day. What is so wrong about giving a different one a try?

If I took everything back that was defective out of the box and did not try again, I would not have the gear I have now.

 

[amirm]

And you stopped short of listening to it. Could be that the guy that built it had a bad day. What is so wrong about giving a different one a try?

The unit had a short fuse to be returned and our house is flooded. Last thing I have time for right now is entertaining misdirections like this. The motivation for testing this amplifier was that it did not meet its power specifications. My testing of a third unit confirmed the same, disputing a number of statements put out there prior to that. What I hear playing music is neither here, nor there. The amp is not safe, has poor QC, and doesn't produce the power it needs to produce.

If the company wants me to listen to it, they can send me one to do so in a couple of weeks when I am out of this hell of dealing with our home.

 

[amirm]

If I took everything back that was defective out of the box and did not try again, I would not have the gear I have now.

This is the third amp tested. Two by Paul and one by me. Nothing is "defective." Amps are working as they should. They just can't and won't produce the stated power in advertising. Pretty sure this is not what you have faced as you need instrumentation to know you were sold less than what you thought you bought.

 

[vkhong]

And you stopped short of listening to it. Could be that the guy that built it had a bad day. What is so wrong about giving a different one a try?

If I took everything back that was defective out of the box and did not try again, I would not have the gear I have now.

In fairness to ASR, I come to this site for objective data. @amirm's listening has no bearing on ASR reviews. There are plenty of other sites that offer subjective reviews.

 

[traderitch]

Since he is not responsible for manufacturing or sale of the amp, I suspect that promise is made by others, not Bob. That aside, remember that many of the owners won't be reading our forum. They deserve a notice that what they bought has lower power than specified. And may have safety issues.

Amir,

The promise is from Bob.
He took the time to remedy the concerns of this forum directly.

There is a network of dealers that will have the information for dissemination.

 

[john2017]

Amir,

The promise is from Bob.
He took the time to remedy the concerns of this forum directly.

There is a network of dealers that will have the information for dissemination.

And this discussion is the TOP HIT for this amp on Google, outside of the Carver homepage and Music Direct.

 

[traderitch]

And you stopped short of listening to it. Could be that the guy that built it had a bad day. What is so wrong about giving a different one a try?

If I took everything back that was defective out of the box and did not try again, I would not have the gear I have now.

John,

As much as I would love for people on this site to listen to the amplifier, some minds were made up long ago. You know Bob to be a man of great passion and integrity.
This is an open forum with participants from various backgrounds. He clearly stated
he does not care to attempt to debate here, nor should he. His tenure in the electronics
industry is well documented.


This evening, even after offering an unprecedented remedy, he was confronted with headwinds.

 

[paulbottlehead]

And you stopped short of listening to it. Could be that the guy that built it had a bad day. What is so wrong about giving a different one a try?

If I took everything back that was defective out of the box and did not try again, I would not have the gear I have now.

This all started with the two units that I had here and measured (albeit not as completely as Amir) and things didn't seem right. Since the units I obtained turned out to be Carverfest kits (which still don't seem to be any different electrically from a 275 as far as I can tell), I purchased a brand-new unit which also has similar shortcomings.

We also had Dan Santoni corroborate that he had also measured a factory demo that also had the same issues.

If four units is not a sufficient sample size, how many are we supposed to measure?