What equipment does Bob Carver use?

[brit01]

With the recent CarverFestival and all the talks with him can anyone tell me what his set up is in his house?

Does anyone have any pics of his set up?

What speakers does he use? What interconnects/cables?

[tfm75]

I had a couple of walks with him going from one cabin to the next and he told me he ran a Sunfire 300x2, Than later with the group he also said he was running his Silver Seven Tube setup. To be honest I think he's like the rest of us and likes to swap out his amps when the mood feels right.

He also said he is using Sunfire's new little ribbins for his speakers.

[gdb]

I had a suspicion that he might have a pair of tube7s squirreled away for himself!!! I wonder what those could bring on the open market these days? Anyone care to make a guess or state what they'd be willing to pay for them. I asked Mr. Bob on ebay how many were ever produced,but never got his answer.

[brit01]

He' probably got a Onkyo (not that there's anything wrong with that).

[Zoot Horn]

I had a suspicion that he might have a pair of tube7s squirreled away for himself!!! I wonder what those could bring on the open market these days? Anyone care to make a guess or state what they'd be willing to pay for them. I asked Mr. Bob on ebay how many were ever produced,but never got his answer.

I think he was asked this at Carverfest,,,and while my hearing is not what it used to be,, I thought he said there were 50 pairs made IIRC.

[TNRabbit]

I'm pretty certain Bob also said he had a pair of ALS Originals.

[Toy Maker]

Amp wise, hes using the (20) tube Burgandy mono blocks he custom made for himself this past year. (still waiting on photos of them to post)
I don't recall much else. It's all on the video though.

[bigerik]

Any idea what he was using speaker wise in the 80's when he was turning out the first amps and the t's? This would be pre-Amazings, of course!

[Rainman]

I can add that Mr. Carver mentioned in a discussion that he does not like to listen to his own gear while he is working on his speaker designs. That allows him to focus on the task at hand and not stray into thinking about how his gear is functioning/designed etc. As I recall he said that one of his speaker test pieces is an old school Harmon Kardon piece from (I think) the Citation era. He also mentioned that he uses some interconnects that he bought a very long time ago that were waaay expensive (brand not revealed). He was going through the list of his personal gear that did include the Sunfire equipment along with the tube amps he recently built as mentioned by another member. I also think he said that he also uses a pair of these ultra rare and expensive Carver amps. (see picture) I had a short talk with him regarding these and I do not remember how many were made, but somehow almost all of them ended up over in Europe. I saw one pair for sale in the UK a couple years ago for $18,000 each.
The one thing he did not mention was what he listens to for speakers when he isn't listening to his own. I have a sneaking suspicion that after Carverfest he may be considering doing a little speaker shopping for a new pair to do some of his amp testing etc. (suspected brand withheld).

Rainman

[stereo_buff]

I had a couple of walks with him going from one cabin to the next and he told me he ran a Sunfire 300x2, Than later with the group he also said he was running his Silver Seven Tube setup. To be honest I think he's like the rest of us and likes to swap out his amps when the mood feels right.

He also said he is using Sunfire's new little ribbins for his speakers.

I had breakfast with Bob about 6 weeks ago, and though we spoke of many things during the course of our conversation, he mentioned that he felt that the Sunfire 300x2 "is my best amp." Subsequently, he also mentioned that when he finally assembled his "ultimate" home system, it would consist of a pair of Silver Seven (tube) monoblocks, which he confirmed that he already owned.

He is very proud of the new Sunfire CRM-2 ribbons (quite rightly) and was using them at home at the time we spoke.

I had a suspicion that he might have a pair of tube7s squirreled away for himself!!! I wonder what those could bring on the open market these days? Anyone care to make a guess or state what they'd be willing to pay for them. I asked Mr. Bob on ebay how many were ever produced,but never got his answer.

I think he was asked this at Carverfest,,,and while my hearing is not what it used to be,, I thought he said there were 50 pairs made IIRC.

He mentioned during our breakfast conversation that 50 (pair) of Silver Seven (tube) monoblocks were produced. I mentioned that I heard that production was limited due to the unavailability of output transformers, but he said, "No, we just exhausted the number of people willing to spend that much on a stereo amplifier."

[bigerik]

He mentioned during our breakfast conversation that 50 (pair) of Silver Seven (tube) monoblocks were produced. I mentioned that I heard that production was limited due to the unavailability of output transformers, but he said, "No, we just exhausted the number of people willing to spend that much on a stereo amplifier."

No way.
I am certainly willing to spend that kind of money on a stereo amp.
I am just not currently able to spend it....

[snarffydoggy]

Amen bigerik. Wouldn't it be nice to have the genius and skills to design and build your own stereo gear???

[stereo_buff]

He mentioned during our breakfast conversation that 50 (pair) of Silver Seven (tube) monoblocks were produced. I mentioned that I heard that production was limited due to the unavailability of output transformers, but he said, "No, we just exhausted the number of people willing to spend that much on a stereo amplifier."

No way.
I am certainly willing to spend that kind of money on a stereo amp.
I am just not currently able to spend it....

Yes, but that would have been ~$25k or so in 1988 dollars. What's the ratio between the value of the dollar between then and now?

[RichP714]

.....
Yes, but that would have been ~$25k or so in 1988 dollars. What's the ratio between the value of the dollar between then and now?

$43,816.99 using the Consumer Price Index
$39,566.94 using the GDP deflator
$48,663.68 using the value of consumer bundle *
$44,548.25 using the unskilled wage *
$54,865.08 using the nominal GDP per capita
$67,633.43 using the relative share of GDP



http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/

[Harryfan]

.....
Yes, but that would have been ~$25k or so in 1988 dollars. What's the ratio between the value of the dollar between then and now?

$43,816.99 using the Consumer Price Index
$39,566.94 using the GDP deflator
$48,663.68 using the value of consumer bundle *
$44,548.25 using the unskilled wage *
$54,865.08 using the nominal GDP per capita
$67,633.43 using the relative share of GDP

This is why economics was always my least favorite subject. No such thing as a straight answer.