Carver Crimson 275 Review (Tube Amp)

[MakeMineVinyl]

My father made this DC power supply for me when I was something like 7 years old. No AC line isolation, slow-blow fuses meant to protect the circuit, not me. Clearly he wanted me dead.

 

[traderitch]

Your style of writing and communication seems to be a bit egotistical and provocative, and when people react to that, you get defensive. This can lead to a vicious cycle of rancorous discussion. It seems that a lot of the negativity in this thread is related to poor communication rather than the substance of the issues.

Inflection is difficult to discern in the written word.
I only get defensive of personal attacks.
No ego involved and not intended to be provocative in this response.

 

[SIY]

My father made this DC power supply for me when I was something like 7 years old. No AC line isolation, slow-blow fuses meant to protect the circuit, not me. Clearly he wanted me dead.

Well, that does save the child support check every month.

 

[paulbottlehead]

My father made this DC power supply for me when I was something like 7 years old. No AC line isolation, slow-blow fuses meant to protect the circuit, not me. Clearly he wanted me dead.

View attachment 180827

Yes, that is dangerous for more reasons than just that!

 

[Billy Budapest]

Lower left hand corner. Green wire.

Also called out by a sticker so you can’t miss it!

 

[Larry B. Larabee]

My father made this DC power supply for me when I was something like 7 years old. No AC line isolation, slow-blow fuses meant to protect the circuit, not me. Clearly he wanted me dead.

View attachment 180827

Was he in a good mood the day he added the fuse

 

[jbhiller]

Thank you folks for such a great discussion. Thanks Atmasphere for dropping by and chiming in with your expertise.

If Jim Clark were my client I'd tell him to not be making statements that the amp is perfectly safe as is. Even with my rather pedestrian understanding of electronics, I wouldn't make such representations, especially considering the questionable build quality of some of the amps. This amp weighs so little that I can pick it up with a finger or two; it's easy to see how it could be dropped and damaged internally causing loose screws, the glue holding the meter/DC restorer circuit down to come lose, and so on... At least Music Direct's positions is, hey , we know there are issues that the manufacturer needs to address.

It may be easier to ensconce the amp in an acrylic cage with triple rubber insulation on the power switch than to get an answer out of Frank Malitz, Bob Carver, and EJ Sarmento.

By the way, it looks like (from Malitz's own words) that he sold the company to EJ Sarmento at one point. I'm going to do some corporate due diligence. If confirmed, I'm never buying or touching anything from Wyred4Sound.

Unfortunately, while I have the physical skills to make most any of the modifications to the grounding scheme that might be necessary, I don't have the expertise to design, test and ensure the modifications to the grounding scheme are appropriate. I was zapped at 240 AC volts for a second once. I'm not playing around with this amp as designed, knowing what we know.

 

[jbhiller]

Con men are always "nice," it's part of SOP. I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first, but to continue these claims after the product defects are known to him is absolutely dishonest.

Cannot agree more. That's what is so disturbing about this.

 

[BurntFinger]

Carver 180 Monobloc:

 

[jbhiller]

Carver 180 Monobloc:

I'm shocked! ...No ground to earth.

 

[Doodski]

Thank you folks for such a great discussion. Thanks Atmasphere for dropping by and chiming in with your expertise.

If Jim Clark were my client I'd tell him to not be making statements that the amp is perfectly safe as is. Even with my rather pedestrian understanding of electronics, I wouldn't make such representations, especially considering the questionable build quality of some of the amps. This amp weighs so little that I can pick it up with a finger or two; it's easy to see how it could be dropped and damaged internally causing loose screws, the glue holding the meter/DC restorer circuit down to come lose, and so on... At least Music Direct's positions is, hey , we know there are issues that the manufacturer needs to address.

It may be easier to ensconce the amp in an acrylic cage with triple rubber insulation on the power switch than to get an answer out of Frank Malitz, Bob Carver, and EJ Sarmento.

By the way, it looks like (from Malitz's own words) that he sold the company to EJ Sarmento at one point. I'm going to do some corporate due diligence. If confirmed, I'm never buying or touching anything from Wyred4Sound.

Unfortunately, while I have the physical skills to make most any of the modifications to the grounding scheme that might be necessary, I don't have the expertise to design, test and ensure the modifications to the grounding scheme are appropriate. I was zapped at 240 AC volts for a second once. I'm not playing around with this amp as designed, knowing what we know.

I've taken hits from 120VAC manyyyy times and compare it to a mouse chomping down on my finger. 240VAC I think would be more like a big beast with fangs and incisors ripping it off.

 

[BurntFinger]

I'm shocked! ...No ground to earth.

Also note the "Double Insulated" symbol.

 

[jbhiller]

I've taken hits from 120VAC manyyyy times and compare it to a mouse chomping down on my finger. 240VAC I think would be more like a big beast with fags and incisors ripping it off.

Yes. I made a critical mistake when trying to diagnose a 240 line that was hooked to a heated flooring system. I touched a hot for a second. Holy cow. My spine moved and my face cringed up out of PTSD when I typed this. Sooooo unpleasant. I think that shocked caused my Gear Acquisition Syndrome. But, the scientific objectivists here will be happy to know that the shock was not great enough to make me believe that a $1k power cord sounds better.

 

[Doodski]

Yes. I made a critical mistake when trying to diagnose a 240 line that was hooked to a heated flooring system. I touched a hot for a second. Holy cow. My spine moved and my face cringed up out of PTSD when I typed this. Sooooo unpleasant. I think that shocked caused my Gear Acquisition Syndrome. But, the scientific objectivists here will be happy to know that the shock was not great enough to make me believe that a $1k power cord sounds better.

I worked with a guy that took a hit from a magnetron in a Panasonic microwave oven. He was not himself for 3 or so days after. We heard him yelp like a dawg and then he appeared looking a bit mixed up and his eyeballs where wide open. I've never serviced a microwave oven or a TV in my life. That's why I specialized in mechatronics to escape those durty uninteresting things.

On the flip side I took a major hit from 40,000 microFarad power supply near my elbow and near broke my face with my arm as it smacked me hard.

 

[SIY]

Also note the "Double Insulated" symbol.

Yes, I'd be curious if it's accurate.

 

[levimax]

With a grounding (lack of) scheme like this I figured they must have copied some old tube design from the 1950's or early 1960's.... but those designs performed much better so that's not it.

 

[jbhiller]

I worked with a guy that took a hit from a magnetron in a Panasonic microwave oven. He was not himself for 3 or so days after. We heard him yelp like a dawg and then he appeared looking a bit mixed up and his eyeballs where wide open. I've never serviced a microwave oven or a TV in my life. That's why I specialized in mechatronics to escape those durty uninteresting things.

On the flip side I took a major hit from 40,000 microFarad power supply near my elbow and near broke my face with my arm as it smacked me hard.

Yikes!

 

[Doodski]

Yikes!

It was so fast I was oblivious to it other than hearing the smack sound and listening to my workmates rubbish and then laughing. My prescription frames where bent and near broken, my face was red and my hand hurt a bit. My shoulder was a bit sore for a couple of days too. It wasn't really a big deal but it could have been.

 

[DonH56]

As Amir said, the topic was inability to produce the specified power output, and led to a look at the inside that spun off this safety discussion.

These discussions always seem to go this way, with a big debate about whether or not it matters. On one side are the "It's not safe, you can die!" crowd, and on the other the "I've done that way for years, I have never heard of anybody being hurt, it's only a little buzz" and so forth. I fall more in the former camp because I have had friends be hurt up to and including die from equipment failures that raised the chassis, lifted the ground, had a power transformer or other circuit short line to chassis, or otherwise led to a safety issue.

I've been shocked many times, probably will be again, but survival is sometimes just a matter of luck. I've told the tale of a friend's dad who died from a shock using a saw, and once upon a time used my EMT training to give CPR to my fellow tech when he grabbed a meter from a bench and his other hand brushed what turned out to be a hot chassis in an ancient tube radio that had the power cord replaced wrongly by the owner. It went from the hand on the chassis, through his body, to the hand on the bench, and he just dropped and turned blue. Scared the heck out of me.

Whatever - Don

 

[Doodski]

As Amir said, the topic was inability to produce the specified power output, and led to a look at the inside that spun off this safety discussion.

These discussions always seem to go this way, with a big debate about whether or not it matters. On one said are the "It's not safe, you can die!" crowd, and on the other the "I've done that way for years, I have never heard of anybody being hurt, it's only a little buzz" and so forth. I fall more in the former camp because I have had friends be hurt up to and including die from equipment failures that raised the chassis, lifted the ground, had a power transformer or other circuit short line to chassis, or otherwise led to a safety issue.

I've been shocked many times, probably will be again, but survival is sometimes just a matter of luck. I've told the tale of a friend's dad who died from a shock using a saw, and once upon a time used my EMT training to give CPR to my fellow tech when he grabbed a meter from a bench and his other hand brushed what turned out to be a hot chassis in an ancient tube radio that had the power cord replaced wrongly by the owner. It went from the hand on the chassis, through his body, to the hand on the bench, and he just dropped and turned blue. Scared the heck out of me.

Whatever - Don

I take electrocution very seriously. My father was a industrial paramedic-firefighter. He administered first aid to a electrocution victim, gave CPR and the victim convulsed and vomited in his mouth and throat as he was trying to revive him with mouth-to-mouth. The body was a crispy critter too but they persevered and tried to save the guy but he died. That's some serious stuff!