Hi All, I was given a Carver TFM-45 today and a friend of mine has a pair of stats he wants to sell for very little money. My question is: Is the Carver the TYPE of amp that can handle Stats? I don't know much about Electrostats but have always heard they are particular about what type of amp they work best with.
I can't vouch for the TFM-45 but I've been bi-amping my hybrid ESL's with a pair of Carver TFM-25's for three years now with no problems. I will post your TFM-45 question on the CarverSite forum and then post any responses here.
Are the ESL's you're looking at hybrids or full range ?
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They should be able to handle them okay.
The TM45 has a Higher overall power rating in the 8 ohm to 4 ohm range.
But the TM25 really shines in the 2 ohm range compared to the TM45.
Just check the carver site for more info.
The sound labs are advertised as 8 ohm but as we all know ESL's can go as low as 2 ohms.
If you can find an imepedence curve of the model you are considering and it doesn't go much below 4 ohms then the extra power that the TM45 has to offer would be quite a welcome feature. jer
The TM45 has a Higher overall power rating in the 8 ohm to 4 ohm range.
But the TM25 really shines in the 2 ohm range compared to the TM45.
Just check the carver site for more info.
The sound labs are advertised as 8 ohm but as we all know ESL's can go as low as 2 ohms.
If you can find an imepedence curve of the model you are considering and it doesn't go much below 4 ohms then the extra power that the TM45 has to offer would be quite a welcome feature. jer
I have 2 of these amps, if your load does not stay below 4ohms you should be okay.....
I run a set of carver amazing's , these things are rated at 4ohm, but will dip to 2.
unless I have it blastin for a long period of time the amp does okay, when it does get hot, I can hear that it is distorting, so I just turn it down, got a bigger amp to put on these, but just haven't done it yet
try it, if it distorts then you know, normally these amps dont run too hot when turn up, so keep that in mind
I run a set of carver amazing's , these things are rated at 4ohm, but will dip to 2.
unless I have it blastin for a long period of time the amp does okay, when it does get hot, I can hear that it is distorting, so I just turn it down, got a bigger amp to put on these, but just haven't done it yet
try it, if it distorts then you know, normally these amps dont run too hot when turn up, so keep that in mind
Most Soundlab ESLs have 3 interface adjustments that will affect the impedance.
1) A brilliance adjustment varies the resistance in series with the HF transformer. This will affect how low the impedance dips above 10K. In the full CW position, the impedance will drop to under 1 ohm.
2) A bass adjustment varies the number of turns used in the primary, thus changing the step-up ratio for the bass transformer. This will affect the impedance from the midrange on down. The higher step-up ratio chosen, the lower the impedance.
3) A midrange adjustment varies the value of an inductor in series with the bass transformer. The higher the midrange setting, the lower the inductance, and the lower the impedance in the midrange.
The owner of the Soundlab A1s I was able to measure preferred the sound with all adjustments at maximum. He has a rather large well damped room and these adjustments also provided the flattest in-room octave smoothed measurement.
The resulting impedance is pretty daunting. Impedance is 2 ohm throughout most of the midrange and falls to a brutal 0.6 ohm at 20kHz. Note also the high phase angle at 13kHz. I'm not sure if the TFM-45 would handle this load well or not, but at least this gives you an idea what the worst case Soundlab ESL impedance load might be.
BTW, the owner's opinion was that the Van Alstine MOSFET amplifiers drove this speakers better than any other amplifers he had tried.
avahifi - avahifi
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Carver's amps operated on the principle of switching the rail voltage, by keeping the rail just slightly above output level, you can maximize the efficiency of a Class AB amplifier.
Switching rail voltage is itself not trivial, that's where the famous "magnetic" part comes in, an inductor is used.
Technically, this is a dancing elephant. The question is not how well the elephant dances, but that it dances at all is a miracle.
I would tend to think this kind of amplifier would not be best for electrostatic speakers having load going down to 2 ohms. I wouldn't even think of using it on my Acoustats, which are known for frying amplifiers not up to the Acoustat specification.
Sound labs have very similar interface to Acoustat. The Sound Labs might be slightly more efficient, possibly about the same as the very rare Acoustat 3+3 model.
Switching rail voltage is itself not trivial, that's where the famous "magnetic" part comes in, an inductor is used.
Technically, this is a dancing elephant. The question is not how well the elephant dances, but that it dances at all is a miracle.
I would tend to think this kind of amplifier would not be best for electrostatic speakers having load going down to 2 ohms. I wouldn't even think of using it on my Acoustats, which are known for frying amplifiers not up to the Acoustat specification.
Sound labs have very similar interface to Acoustat. The Sound Labs might be slightly more efficient, possibly about the same as the very rare Acoustat 3+3 model.
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