Any imputs on Carver CM-1090 integrated amplifier

very decent cdplayer....

I can get this for 3K. Will be trying it at my home soon. Have been waiting for this for the past 3-4 months. Had asked somebody to get this for me secondhand from the south-east.

Manek, Is there anything that i need to check to see whether it is broken, repaired etc. Anything that i can make out by hearing? Have read some reviews on the net where problems regarding reading and skipping of disc is also mentioned. Also since this is from the early 90s, has the technology changed much so that today it may not sound as good as maybe a 6-7K dvd player?

Also can anybody let me know about the NAD C320 cd player. I can get this also but at around 4.5K? Again like before it is a used model.....

Sorry, I meant the C520 CD player!!

Ronnie
if it is used....open up the top cover to see if there are any pcb mods or repairs...other than that if it sounds fine then for 3-4k its worth the risk. We cant be sure if the transport mechanism has been changed or not...usually nad uses philips transport mechanism i was told....so check for a philips transport.

manek.

Hey Manek,
now that u mention it..
When i opened my H/K i foud a Sanyo transport inside..
Does that say something abt either company..?

sachi

Hey Sachi,

The NAD C520 is the successor to the NAD 522 and a lot of ppl placed the C520 a notch above the 522. Most of the problems associated with the 522 relates to skipping, background noises like hisses and pops. However I couldn't make out any such thing for the 30 mins that I heard the cdp.

Anyways ppl attribute the problems with is transport which incidentally happens to be a philips. The successor, c520 uses a sanyo transport. Wonder which transport is used by the c521 and 542?

Interestingly the DAC was also changed from the 522 to the c520.

Hi Ronnie,

Glad to know that you are getting your CD player finally. Unfortunately I missed it. Back in Mumbai and living a quiet life - except for music that is.

Ronnie22 schrieb:

Hey Sachi, Anyways ppl attribute the problems with is transport which incidentally happens to be a philips. The successor, c520 uses a sanyo transport. Wonder which transport is used by the c521 and 542? Interestingly the DAC was also changed from the 522 to the c520.

That's pretty re assuring Ronnie..
Thanks...

Hi Ronnie
The Carver name is legendary in hifi. Bob Carver has made a good many beautiful products.
I have a Carver CM 1065 ( 60 RMS/ch) intergrated amp and its a beauty. Lovely tubey sound with a retro look to match and though its over 13years old no trouble so far barring a blown fuse.
If you are getting it cheap audition it in your system and if you like it buy it..you are buying into hifi history!
Jeeves

jeeves,
Even I have found a carver amp at one of my aquaintance's place. He is also willing to sell it. Dont know the price and model though. Its greyish in colour, looks big and heavy. Havent auditioned it yet. Is it good for popular music genres. When you mentioned 'Tubey' that means mids would be wonderful but then how about the low end extension and dynamics ?? Is it good in those areas as well ??

Hi all,

I auditioned the NAD 522 cdp and the Carver CM-1090.

However i could find no difference between the NAD cdp and my entry-level ONida dvdp. Maybe i'm going "audiophile-deaf" but on hearing for a short time, i really couldn't make out too much of a difference actually. The NAD cdp seemed almost brand new. Maybe the unit was refurbished but on taking a look inside, the thing seemed original and nothing seemed to be tampered in terms of soldering, etc. So now i'm trying to figure if the advancement in technology is so much that a entry-level hifi cdp from 2000 is at par with an entry-level dvdp of today????

As for the Carver, that was a different experience altogether. The amplifier was beautiful when i played it with the nad cdp and my speakers (diy). The sound was unlike anything that i hear with the NAD, the sound was 3-dimensional. The voices were beautiful almost making anything sound musical. I'm pretty sure, if i had recorded my myself singing, i would have loved me too

Didn't realise till now, how much of a difference an amp can make. However the bass was not very strong but better than the NAD.

Ronnie,
I would agree with you on that.
I tried a mission cyrus,CD player in my set up,replacing the entry level DVDP,and the difference was very very minute,but then this mission CDP is from 1987.So digital signal processing has come a long long way since then.
But if you are comparing NAD522 with a mass market DVDP,then which ones are the entry level audiophile grade CD players,which would definitely make a difference,over DVDP's?(Most of the latest DVDP's use 192KHz/24 bit DACs,for audio processing,may be that is the prime reason,not sure though)
Thanks.