Carver Pro ZR1600

El: Try using solder as an interconnect rather than a speaker cable. The gauge of the solder used would be more appropriate for line level signals than for the much higher current levels of a speaker connection.

If i remember correctly, i think that Jennifer Crock of JennaLabs did this with several different solders. According to audiophile folk-lore, she preferred Cardas solder to the others that she tried in this manner.

As a side note, take a relatively long yet identical length of various generic and high quality solders and measure the resistance of them using precision test equipment. My business partner kept telling me that "solder is solder", so we did this along with some other tests at the shop using some of my HP test equipment. Needles to say, he was pretty amazed at the differences in conductivity between various solders. Then when i explained to him the differences in metallurgy in various solders, the variances in how different solders dry, bond to the surface and how well they hold up over time, he wanted to verify this. After watching how various eutectic and non-eutectic solders performed in these areas, he was pretty much a "convert" as far as "high tech" solder goes. Sean
>

All that being said, I would like to point out once again, that after a year and a half owning the amp, -as one of the original heretics who "dared" wade into the dark pro-audio waters, this is the best amp I have ever heard, owned and heard plenty, and plenty good. It is for this reason that I caution that the amp is so damn good, for those of you contemplating one, please note, the mods are by no means "necessary" for ultimate enjoyment. And yes, it STILL reminds me of an exceptional tube amp, coming dangerously close to SET, "to these ears, on this equipment, in my environment." I know what real instruments sound like, and have the advantage of perfect pitch. The amp 'matures' over a six month period....Passive preamplification and non-oversampling source for the Redbook crowd most strongly advised. Value Value Value.

Dmason...The Carver is not my first adventure into the ProSound waters. I have a QSC amp which I bought for its capability with 2 ohm load, driving subwoofers. In the SW application I reasoned that superlow distortion and the like is not critical. But, I have run this amp full range into MG1.6 and Dynaudio speakers, and it sounds embarrasingly good. Checking the specs, I find that at low power level, typical of home audio, distortion spec is 0.06. Not too shabby!

Maybe in the old days ProSound meant a Bogen PA system, with rotten sound for music. Times have changed.

Eldartford, ...if ALL of those amps are ZR's, I want to come to your house...I cannot imagine what that is going to be like in a couple of months. It may be of interest to know that Ashly also has Tripath amps, 4 and 6 channel muscle amps which look pretty good as well, and they have an impeccable reputation for quality in all their products. Crest, Crown too have digital switching amps which should be explored. Either way, the pricing for all these brands has been revised downward, the last 12 months, due to market conditions, and decreased overhead associated with production by way of increased efficiency, less heat output, lesser component requirements, etc. Vive le Revolution!

I have a question for you guys that are familiar with these Tri-Path amps. I have heard two of these amps, but not under conditions that i was familiar with or could really pass judgment with. Compared to a modified Adcom amp, i thought that the Tri-Path's were a step forward.

How do these amps do with lower impedances ? From what i've seen, they are higher in distortion at 8 ohms and measurably lacking in terms of the ability to pass current as impedance drops. On top of that, if they are like most other amps, the distortion will climb noticeably as impedance is reduced.

Given that i tend to prefer speakers that have a lower impedance with high quantities of reflected EMF ( multiple drivers, large motor structures, speakers with sharp phase angles like E-stat's ), i have to wonder how suitable they would be for installations using anything but benign dynamic loads ?

In my book, a "good" amp should be able to drive most any load that you throw at it. Obviously, some will do better than others due to build quality and circuit design, but then again, some do miserably with all but a few types of speakers. As such, what i'm asking is "how universal are these amps" and "do you think that the results that you are obtaining in your system will be easy to duplicate in other systems" ? Sean
>