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Bob Carver LLC Black Beauty Review

If any of you GON members are interested in Bob Carver's new mono-block tube amps take a look at my review that was just posted on hometheaterreview.com. It's in the recent short review section on the front page. It was a very interesting experience to compare the Carver's performance with my Pass Labs XA-60.5's.
teajay
stickman451
529 posts
 
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!
thuan98's avatar
thuan98
117 posts
 
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
milsap195
24 posts
 
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......
stickman451
529 posts
 
Milsap, what has Bob told you will improve with the KT-150's? More power? I am using the Black Beauty 305's (KT-120's) to drive my Magnepan 20.7's with good results, but I do wonder if a power boost with the KT-150's would be benefical.
milsap195
24 posts
 
With your 305's the power increase would not be that much, maybe only 10 to 20 watts at the 8 taps. In my case I'm going from 180 watts to 315 or so watts which will make a much more significant sound improvement not only from the new tubes but also giving me a whole lot more headroom. Bob claims the new 150 tubes give you the best of all tubes from top to bottom and since I only have had kt88's and have never heard the kt120's I'm not sure what you will gain. The few reviews out there on these new tubes are really positive. The 305 do not need any mods to run the 150's.
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