Carver PT-2400 Dual Mono Vintage Amplifier Review

[gabo4au]

Before the fire that claimed all my equipment and media I had a variety of Carver amplifiers, all purchased second hand, and I liked them for their power output and relatively low noise. In a house where appliances are running and people are talking, the mediocre noise floor was mostly irrelevant. The power overcame that noise floor and made it go away. I appreciated that. Now it is the next generation of equipment, low noise class D amps, modern AV receivers and really low noise DACs for music. Its a brave new world. I miss the nostalgia of the Carver amps, but love the black background of the new quieter equipment I am able to get today.

Absolutely agree! I just wish people were into music like they were at that time. Everyone had a stereo, everyone bought the albums and read all the inserts. Now the equipment and the product are all so "commodity" and not as much "art."

Interestingly, I'm hoping for a resurgence. In a time where everything is computer generated (AI) and artificial, there does seem to be a kindling of interest in things that humans can do. I know in my area, local musicians, both solo artists in small cafe's and full bands in pubs, are as popular as ever. And the trend of a few years back of all of them having canned backing tracks and artificial "helpers" also seems to be waning. It seems more of them are interested in what the artist can do without all that. It's a good start, the money isn't there yet to attract more of them, but it's not dead and I'm hoping for increased interest as AI takes over so many things.

We need things with a "human touch" and music is always an incredible display of that when done "old school."

 

[davidc]

The PT-2400 is basically a PA amp. The manual data show that it's THD is not in the 0.001 range. So I think it was made for high power and reliability which is shown by the 2x mono construction. Not specifically for HiFi usage. This is also stated by usage of a fan which can be noisy. Therefore I can't put much blame on it.

The original fan was somewhat noisy. The replacement is relatively quiet. I can't hear the fan with music just at background levels.

 

[davidc]

The PT-2400 is basically a PA amp. The manual data show that it's THD is not in the 0.001 range. So I think it was made for high power and reliability which is shown by the 2x mono construction. Not specifically for HiFi usage. This is also stated by usage of a fan which can be noisy. Therefore I can't put much blame on it.

There were only a few amps that had THD distortion less than 0,03% back then.

 

[davidc]

I remember reading about these in the 80’s. Carver came out with interesting technology. Their equipment seems to be popular on eBay. I wonder if parts are available though.

Parts are not an issue. There are a couple of Carver refurb guys that can work on all of his equipment, save some mechanical stuff.

 

[Head_Unit]

Plenty of power... that's all she wrote.

I believe the pro version of this is what my wealthy Texan roommate bought in college when he thought someone else's stereo was almost as loud as mine (117 dBC from a little NAD). The speakers were a budding effort as a loudspeaker engineer with a 15" and mid and high horns. OMG the combo was insane, just insane. I've posted elsewhere that Lewis got pissed off when he was trying to study for P-Chem and some guys wouldn't turn it down. When I saw his face coming back from their room I immediately put in my earplugs and my shooting muffs over that, and we went and stood in their room. I forget the track but it started quiet then WHAMBLAM holy crapola it was loud, you could not even hear their stereo at all. They made sad annoyed faces and THE END they turned it down. Ah fun times.

 

[psemeraro]

Memories … One of the objects of my desire as a high schooler getting interested in hi-fi was the Carver M1.5t amplifier. I admired it regularly on my visits to the local, brick-and-mortar Stereo Shop (yes, that was the actual name of the store). Sadly, it was out of my price range then, so I got a Technics receiver. I wonder how the little M1.5t would do in Amir’s testing?

In the early 90's I used Carver PM 2.0T amps then their replacement the PT1250. Very hi-tech for early 90s. Light weight, sounded good (better than many pro amps at that time) and extremely high power for the era. They were unreliable so you always carried a spare in the truck. Randomly they would refuse to turn on. Afternoon event worked fine, evening event on same day, dead... grab the spare, send the dead one back to Carver, returned in a week with new power supply. Still worth it for the power/weight/sound quality at that time. Typical amps of the era were three times heavier with half the power.
Pat

 

[geol]

In Europe we had/have Dynacord, EMB (no longer exists) & Power.