Tell us about your stereo!

[LG]

GG and George have inspired me, I dug this old beauty out of the closet gave it a 'tune-up' and will test drive it tomorrow sometime.

My Carver C-1 2 Channel Preamplifier/Processor. Yeah I know what's with the 'processor' bit? It has something completely unique that Bob Carver invented back in the early 80's I think it was, "Sonic Holography". This was pre-digital age gear but Bob came up with a really neat idea to enhance the soundstage of conventional equipment. What he did was use a 4 channel matrix, the left and right channels were normal, then he fed an 'inverted' signal from left to right and right to left. (I think it was an inverted signal, I can't find my manual right now so I'm going by memory.) It takes a while to set everything up properly, you have to place the speakers in exactly the right location to really enjoy the 3-Dimensional sound created by his Holographic circuitry and it only works for one person sitting in the sweet spot in the room.

But once you go through all that the results can be stunning. The best song I ever played to demonstrate the effect was "Johnny All Alone" by Starz off their Attention Shoppers album. When the guitar solo cranks up you swear he walks from the center of the room and ends up beside you on the left hand side...I even played this for my Dad to see if he heard the same thing and he was impressed, no mean feat it took a lot to get his attention when it came to electronics.

These babies are still in demand and valued by collectors, mine is worth about $250 as it sits, I could get it updated but haven't decided yet if I will do that or not.



I'd love to send this to George and Jim so they could verify my statement and would be interested to hear what they thought of the listening experience. Some people feel it's sacrilegious to muck about with 2 channel stereo period, me I enjoy messing around with all kinds of electronics.

 

[mrJim]

SCHWing! That is nice. Test drive her and post it up.

Oh yeah some folks would like to get their hands on that.

Jim

 

[gcczep]

Movements In Space...

Carver is well known in the audio world. I used to have two of his Sunfires which to this day I regret selling. I heard of his "Sonic Holography" concept and never had anyone tell what it's like. It's certainly unique. It's probably more work to get the logistics right just to experience it properly.

Those Sunfires that I used to have had two outputs for the front channels. One was voltage and the other was current. The former was for solid state while the latter mimicked a "tube" sound.

 

[gcczep]

Trading places...

Swapped the Parasound HCA-1206 for an Atlantic Technology A-2000. Before the former was handling the ML SL3's by themselves using 4 channels of its 6.



As I had the Musical Fidelity buffer in between the amp and the Onkyo pre, the overall aural presentation was good but I was finding it slightly forward for my taste, a bit etched and a touch bright. Although not fatiguing, I thought that it was more sizzle than it really should be. Not just that as I had to manually turn on the 1206 but after an hour or two of playback at -10, the 1206 was hot to the touch.

This time, I decided to pair the tube buffer with the Parasound DAC 1600 HD. Initially, the soundstage without the buffer wasn't as exact not to mention on the wooly side. The Musical Fidelity did clear that up though at first the sound was somewhat on the polite side. Something was still lacking. Changed the Tara Labs interconnects with the Outlaw PCA's. So the Taras had been imprinting their signatures while the Outlaws just passed it through. Back in business... Slight tweaks with the EQ's sweetened the mids and brought some punch into the low end. Now I did not go crazy in the menus pretending to be Mutt Lange so some restraint was in order.

The A-2000's are smoother albeit the top end was tamed a couple of levels the tradeoff being balance in the other frequencies. After listening to a Don Henley CD with its well produced tracks, no other instruments were recessed out. Everything sounded more natural...the guitar sustains...the snare hits had better splash, the bass more definition and the kick drums had body. Vocals had a more rounded feel.

The Atlantics do not have the Parasound's versatility with its channel looping or bridging capability but it makes up for it with two transformers thus more efficient. Its sound is very transparent. All amps are supposed to sound the same given their main responsibility to...well...just amplify signals but it is not always the case. After over an hour, it was barely warm. Of course, two pair of fans on top helps to cool its innards which did not necessary help much with the 1206.

In this hobby, it's always a good idea not to fix something that isn't broken or messing about with a current set-up. However to achieve better results, it is necessary. All good...for now.

 

[LG]

^^That's a lot of 'tweaking' George, hope you are satisfied...for the moment anyway.

Did you put the Para back in storage...I'm sure you wouldn't part with it?

Back to Carver for a minute, Sunfire was the company he designed for later on, and wasn't Phase Linear another one of his brands...

Never got around to testing the C-1, I was out of town all weekend, I'm going to unpack my old Hafler amplifier and use that with the C-1, they are well matched and have a warm sweet sound that is rich with detail and you can listen to for hours without any problem.

 

[gcczep]

Carving it up...

^^That's a lot of 'tweaking' George, hope you are satisfied...for the moment anyway.

Did you put the Para back in storage...I'm sure you wouldn't part with it?

Back to Carver for a minute, Sunfire was the company he designed for later on, and wasn't Phase Linear another one of his brands...

Never got around to testing the C-1, I was out of town all weekend, I'm going to unpack my old Hafler amplifier and use that with the C-1, they are well matched and have a warm sweet sound that is rich with detail and you can listen to for hours without any problem.

I was thinking you had set up the Carver and was looking forward to your impressions with it. Yes, Phase Linear was one of his innovations. There's a feature on his Sunfires called a Downtracking Converter which applies the proper voltage according to the peaks or something like that. Looking forward to your take after you put the Carver/Hafler combo through its paces Bruce. I reckon you'll test various sources with it.

As for the Parasound, I am going to sell it. I'm at a phase were I will be offing equipment to downsize what I have.

 

[mrJim]

Bruce that Carver is the things of legends are made. He had more than one legendary story or product in his time. my memory was that the 80's was a time where he produced a particularly significant amount legends and all kinds of stories.

You have keeper there Bruce don't let it go. and for goodness sake set'er up j/k

George, surprised you plan to parting with the Parasound, that's a AV minded model right like 6 channels ? Otherwise I may have had some interest in her if you ended up parting ways with it.

 

[LG]

^^I'll have it up and running tomorrow, I always like to let gear sit overnight after cleaning the pots etc., just to make sure everything is nice and dry.

George I hear you, I've got enough gear to set up 5 systems right now which is too much. I'll be selling off some pieces and hope they go to a good home, last year I had a little bit of luck finding homes for 3 pairs of speakers and 2 vintage receivers.

It would be cool if Jim did buy your Parasound, he mentioned he's been looking for one for quite a while now.

 

[mrJim]

yeah all I have is a plan no action. I probably need to start buying some used stuff.

as I keep whining, an audio only separate power amp setup is the end game, but I need to get there in steps. The Onkyo doesn't have a bypass so once I cut to a amp I have no Pre. Plus I want to deal with "the digital issue"

Oh whiny whiny.

I am thinking I'll end up dealing with "the digital issue" and give myself a bridge.

but again Mr Whiny has a lot of ideas but hasn't pulled trigger

Jim

 

[LG]

^^There is no rush, when I first started buying equipment it took 2+ years to get a complete system up and running. I bought my Yamaha CA-1010 before I had a turntable or speakers, then I inherited my Mom's old Dual 1214 TT and bought a pair of nice Sony headphones which I made do with for almost 2 years. Of course back then minimum wage was $3.50/hr and a $20 bill was a small fortune.