Carver AL III

Nick Danger

Nick Danger

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
Apr 28, 2013
Messages
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Anybody here ever own/ audition a pair of these? I have a chance to take a peek at a pair of these for sale, but it is a bit of a drive and was wondering if I should make the trip. I know a woofer is damaged, but it is a motivated seller.

Ribbons available/ repairable? Any major points of concern?
 
Get SLF's attention, I think he knows something of those...
 
The 400 made it today....I'll open it up this weekend...
 
Can't be anything major, the fuses were staying in it, right?
 
Nick Danger said:
Anybody here ever own/ audition a pair of these? I have a chance to take a peek at a pair of these for sale, but it is a bit of a drive and was wondering if I should make the trip. I know a woofer is damaged, but it is a motivated seller.

Ribbons available/ repairable? Any major points of concern?
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I'm familiar with these, they come up for sale around here at times. I have the earlier Carver Amazings but I've never auditioned the AL IIIs. All of these use large planar tranducer ribbons for the mid and high frequencies. Stunning sound. These are not like the Magnaplanar ribbons if you're familiar with those speakers - much more dynamic and much less fussy about room placement in my experience.

Here's a review of the AL IIIs.

I use a pair of the original Amazings with a big Crown amp in a bedroom system and they live up to their name. Besides the ribbons they have four 12" woofers. Recommended power: 300 watts min / 1000 watts max

My understanding of the history of these - the ribbons were designed for Carver by one of the Speakerlab founders - Dave Graebener. Graebener was a pioneer in the development and application of planar-magnetic transducers. Bohlender-Graebener replacement ribbons can be purchased thru Parts Express. An outfit in Gresham, OR does ribbon repairs Carver Audio Repair - I don't have any experience with this firm but they've been around a long time.

If you can swing it, it's worth your time to go give these speakers a listen. Get close to the ribbons and listen for any vibrations or raspiness - it will be pretty obvious if they are damaged in my experience. Hopefully "damaged woofer" just means that the foam surrounds need to be replaced...? That's usually a fairly straight-forward DIY job, if you can source the replacement surrounds. Good luck!
 
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I also have a pair of the earlier Carver Amazing Silvers - which are smaller than the Original Amazings. Here's a picture of them with grilles removed:

DSC_0017-5.jpg




Here's a link to a scan of the Amazing Loudspeaker Service Manual: http://arafel.org/audio/als/amazing_service.pdf

here's a link to the B.A.S. review of the Carver Amazings back in the late 80s: http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/pd...ASS-18-01c.pdf
 
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No kidding!

I bet Carver sold a lot of big amps to drive these things. I can get away with driving one of my pairs of Original Amazings using 200WPC Carver M500T amp if they are in a small 14x14 room.

haha, I just saw a link from Wired magazine about how the Carver M500T made an appearance in Ferris Beuhler's Day Off! It's the amp under the TT in the picture:

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There's a pair of AL III's listed on the local CL: http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/ele/4881043357.html
 
Thanks for the info, SLF. Did a bit more homework last night and may have to go and give these a spin. A little pricey to have the ribbons rebuilt so we will keep our fingers crossed for those. New ribbons are available as well. Woofer upgrade threads for these units seem to abound on the interweb and a variety of drivers are used as well(JL, Parts Express, Kappas...) and I might be able to track down a refoam kit from somebody as well.
 
Damn Doug, those are some killer looking speakers! Love SLF Amazing's also!
 
Nick Danger said:
Thanks for the info, SLF. Did a bit more homework last night and may have to go and give these a spin. A little pricey to have the ribbons rebuilt so we will keep our fingers crossed for those. New ribbons are available as well. Woofer upgrade threads for these units seem to abound on the interweb and a variety of drivers are used as well(JL, Parts Express, Kappas...) and I might be able to track down a refoam kit from somebody as well.
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Good luck! Bring some familiar music to listen to with them. The good news is that these Carver speakers are usually not in big demand because they are big / don't have any wife approval factor plus they don't have a lot of audiophile snob appeal either. So I think they can fly under the radar, and at least around here sellers will let them go for pennies just to clear space in the garage and/or keep domestic harmony.
 
Northwinds said:
Damn Doug, those are some killer looking speakers! Love SLF Amazing's also!
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Ron, don't pass if you ever get a chance to give these a listen. Properly driven they will pin back your ears. They leave a physical impression, not quite as surgical as a pair of K-horns but also really impressive with a thrilling soundstage.

Another pair of Carver speakers to watch for are his earlier creations - Phase Linear Andromedas. Effortless room filling soundstage, here's a picture of mine from awhile back...


15878539743_665a756321_o.jpg
 
Hey good luck buddy! Like SLF said "bring proper clothing and proceed to the wagons immediately!!" :toothy5:, J/K! You listen, you likey, you buyey!

He's given you some great advise, and I'm a bit jealous, I've never had the opportunity to listen to nice ribbons. Are you going to drag the amp you plan on using with them over there? I would
 
Have not heard back from the seller so I think these are a no- go from him. Now I am curious to hear a pair of these so up goes the wanted ad on CL......I will NOT be thwarted!
 
stuwee said:
Hey good luck buddy! Like SLF said "bring proper clothing and proceed to the wagons immediately!!" :toothy5:, J/K! You listen, you likey, you buyey!

He's given you some great advise, and I'm a bit jealous, I've never had the opportunity to listen to nice ribbons. Are you going to drag the amp you plan on using with them over there? I would
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Will probably end up bringing the WOPL if I get a chance to audition a pair.
 
speakerlabfan said:
Ron, don't pass if you ever get a chance to give these a listen. Properly driven they will pin back your ears. They leave a physical impression, not quite as surgical as a pair of K-horns but also really impressive with a thrilling soundstage.

Another pair of Carver speakers to watch for are his earlier creations - Phase Linear Andromedas. Effortless room filling soundstage, here's a picture of mine from awhile back...


15878539743_665a756321_o.jpg
Click to expand...

Very nice, SLF. I am a fan of OB speakers and will have to keep my eyes open for a pair of these locally. Vintage Voltage 2015 should be coming up pretty soon and may be a good place to look.
 
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