Hi srfrench67,
Hi Longmoor,
I strongly advise against attempting to service this amp yourself. It's an entirely different kettle of fish.
-Chris
Well, there you go! These were in fact made for Clair Brothers by Carver Corporation. Send them to Roland in that case. They should come back in reliable condition. Carver amps don't end up in nasty condition like some amps do. An old Macrotech gets pretty nasty and the cheap amps are worse.
Hi Longmoor,
I strongly advise against attempting to service this amp yourself. It's an entirely different kettle of fish.
If that's your only options, then save yourself some money and send the Carver to the dump. However, that's a waste and pretty selfish. Give it to someone who will look after it. Otherwise, what will happen is that you will probably cause more damage and make the repair worse or unrepairable.
-Chris
Hey anatech,
I finally found someone to repair my Carver pm 1.5's, you were right, the transformers were not bad. The first one they have fixed needed capacitors, transistors, various diodes, and several other parts, it was in pretty bad shape, but the transformer was fine. The person I got to fix them is Rita Helm of Ritas Vintage Audio in Washington state, from what I understand she was one of the original technicians working for Bob when the 1.5's were created. Their normal rate is $175.00 US, the first amp was a little higher due to having to replace so many parts, I spoke to Rita on the phone and her exact words were "This amp has been hammered" due to overheating from the fan not working properly. I have received the first one back and it is at 100% factory specifications in all areas and another is on the way until I get all 10 repaired and serviced. Thank you so much for the help you gave me and the guidance to keep searching for a tech and not give up on these amps. I guess I may have found the best tech the states has to offer, what better people to service them that the people who made them. Thanks again
I finally found someone to repair my Carver pm 1.5's, you were right, the transformers were not bad. The first one they have fixed needed capacitors, transistors, various diodes, and several other parts, it was in pretty bad shape, but the transformer was fine. The person I got to fix them is Rita Helm of Ritas Vintage Audio in Washington state, from what I understand she was one of the original technicians working for Bob when the 1.5's were created. Their normal rate is $175.00 US, the first amp was a little higher due to having to replace so many parts, I spoke to Rita on the phone and her exact words were "This amp has been hammered" due to overheating from the fan not working properly. I have received the first one back and it is at 100% factory specifications in all areas and another is on the way until I get all 10 repaired and serviced. Thank you so much for the help you gave me and the guidance to keep searching for a tech and not give up on these amps. I guess I may have found the best tech the states has to offer, what better people to service them that the people who made them. Thanks again
Hi srfrench67,
That's great news! I'm very happy you were able to get them sorted out properly. They did just about exactly what I would have recommended. Not any surprise, since they know of these and how they work.
There are some other good technicians around who would have done as good a job as well. The problem is finding them. This holds true for all products out there.
The best lesson here is that these are not amplifiers to learn on, and even okay techs can mess up on these. There are no shortcuts when it comes to servicing a Carver amp. I'll bet that if you lift the hood and have a look a their work, you will find a nice, neat job. The mark of a good technician. In fact, it's really hard to tell if a product has been serviced if the tech is really good.
-Chris
That's great news! I'm very happy you were able to get them sorted out properly. They did just about exactly what I would have recommended. Not any surprise, since they know of these and how they work.
There are some other good technicians around who would have done as good a job as well. The problem is finding them. This holds true for all products out there.
The best lesson here is that these are not amplifiers to learn on, and even okay techs can mess up on these. There are no shortcuts when it comes to servicing a Carver amp. I'll bet that if you lift the hood and have a look a their work, you will find a nice, neat job. The mark of a good technician. In fact, it's really hard to tell if a product has been serviced if the tech is really good.
-Chris
I don't know if this is still relevant or not, as this thread is pretty old... but if anyone is looking for OEM fans for the PM-1.5 or the 1200, shoot me an email. I was digging through boxes looking for something else and found a bunch of them from when CarverPro went out of business. I'll never use all of them.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.