mat (12/21/82)
A few loose ends from current discussions: How can one really test a tuner out before buying? Do you have to talk someone at the store into letting you take a half-a-dozen home? Or can you realisticly evaluate a tunerin the store, using the stores antenna system, just by playing with weak stations. As you may have guessed, I'm interested in both the Carver and NAD units because of their advertised performance under bad conditions. To Bill Mitchell, and anyone else who is concerned about Carver's M400 amp not having enough reserve- Look at the more recent M1.5. It's more than twice as big in specs, and the long-term reserve, and continuous heat dissipation have both been improved substantialy. I had an interesting experience recently in a HiFi shop. The salesman had the new NAD tuner plugged into an NAD preamp, and a Yamaha tuner plugged into a Yamaha preamp. The two sets were rigged up for A/B switching, and what I heard was almost enough to make me believe that the demo was rigged - almost. Listening to WNCN ( classical ) I brought the two units to the same volume on a moderately quiet passage. Seconds later, on a loud passage, the NAD setup was ( subjectively ) well over 5 dB louder! Is this why Yamaha equipment has always seemed to me to have a 'confined' quality? I've seen several items on the net about the Carver unit ... one person sent mail. Since most of the stuff was posted already, I don't think we need to se it again. If anyone feels differently, please let me know and I will collect and re-post. Now my personal feelings on NAD and Carver: NAD is the poor-man's high end, with exellent value for the dollar spent. Carver is innovative, technologicaly DIFFERENT stuff that also works VERY well. The latter appeals a bit to me ... gadget fever, I guess. Further comments are welcome. hou5a!mat
wjm (12/22/82)
Note that I've moved forrom harpo/zeppo to whuxk...
True, the Carver M1.5 has more power than the M400 and better dynamic headroom
but has the low power factor (the large amount of current drawn out of phase
with the cvoltage) been improved? I would hesitate to put a Carver amp im mn most
leiving rooms (mine included) fror fear of pottipping the circuit breakers.
Thanks for the comments, I agree Bob Carver is an innovator, but I'll stick to
amps of more oconverntional design - like Hafler's DH-220 (which has better
dynamic headroom ands well as lower distortion).
Bill Mitchell
(whuxk!wjm)