Bob Carver LLC Black Beauty Review

Dracule 1,

I have a VTL Stereo 90 Deluxe Ultra-Linear that plays in tetrode mode only that I mate with a Harman Kardon Citation 1 Pre and the Synergy is Stunning. I run all NOS Telefunken 12AX7's and NOS Mullard 10M 12AT7's in the Citation and New Sensor Corp.KT88's,NOS Siemens 801S's and NOS GE 12AT7's in the VTL and it doesn't sound like SS. This combo makes my Focal Utopia Diva Be Speakers sing and the sound is "ADDICTIVE".

Zenkail, Bob Carver once told me his favorite preamp of all time is the Citation designed by Stu Hegeman. Once you get your tube equipment optimized, no SS can get that "addictive" sound you're referring to. :-)

wondering if anyone is still enjoying their BB 305's or the Cherry 180's? I got a set of the Black Beauty 305's several days ago and I have to say that I am pretty impressed so far; they drive my big Magnepan 20.7's without breaking a sweat! Very dynamic, very 3d, lots of beautiful harmonics, with good extension on the top and solid bass. Even on large complex works they seem to play very loud with no compression, no clipping, and no congestion. Amazing!

I'm using Cherry 180 with Tungsol KT120s to drive my behemoth Usher BE20 no sweat. I did quite a few upgrades to my VTA180 like volume pot, Duelund cap coupling, signal path resistors, etc
Worth noting that I try using Psvane KT120s. Sound superior to Tungsol but reliability is suck! Several tube failure during break in, each time would cost me to send bad tube back to Canada for replacement. Finally, dealer offer me to return Psvane of another set of Tungsol. So don't use Psvane KT120s, you will be sorry. Lot of headaches and maybe heart attack because when a tube goes south, big kaboom from your speaker
Best

I love my cherries! I sent mine to bob so he can modify them to work with the kt-150 tubes. He has had them for almost two months, I'm have withdrawal......