Well - it exists in many, many forms in the recording realm. As computer audio/streaming and Audiophile hardware merge, we’ll get there eventually.
Hadn’t really thought about it, but in my studio, I can stream Qobuz as source, and route it to an app that supports putting X or Y plugin on it. PITA and not applicable to my Stereo, except that I can wire my studio output to my stereo.
Apologies for the diversion from the tube thing. Feel it, and own it, etc.
We shouldn’t expect to have our cake and eat it too?
I imagine once a talented artist gets their head wrapped around this we’ll see a depiction of an Audiophile sitting outside in an Eames recliner in the snow warming their hands to a bunch of tube based gear with destroyed buildings in the background.
Reminiscent of the Serb-Croation skirmish, and its impact on the EI Tube Factory.
https://www.bobcarvercorp.com/carver-challenge
The emulation was of an all tube mono block amp.
Hi Amir!
It is a fun, intriguing story.
Edit: the amps underwent blind listening tests, not measurements.
The experience led to Carver’s $30,000 Silver Seven monoblock amplifiers (the current version is $32.000).
I remember that. I guess I wonder why we don’t now all have cheap Carver amps🤷🏻♂️
Because what audiophiles say they want and what they actually want often differ.
So you mean he didn’t then produce a world-beating amp because it was too cheap, so none of us wanted it despite being indistinguishable from our costly tube gear?
Audiophiles also tend to be fooled by a false sense of value, and it is not limited to value oriented products IME.
Carver produced affordable amps which sounded like other big name amps. They did not sell well.
They didn’t sell well because Bob couldn’t get the production units to sound like the carver challenge amps did.
There was a good deal of controversy surrounding these amps as to sound, the concept, etc.
I have never heard one, and also have not heard the Silver Seven.
A friend of mine has two of the carver amps that are supposed to sound like the mark Levinson ML2, I’ve heard both and the carver doesn’t even come close to the mark Levinson. When the carver challenge was done, it was done with one set of speakers, it should have been done with several different types of speakers just like being used in the real world.
It would be fun to hear the original amplifier used in the test.
In the beginning of my audiophile journey, I owned the Caver M-400 Cube. I compared it to a Hafler amp, forget which model, but it was more expensive, and it easily out preformed it.
I remember talking the Carver Cube to Listen Up, where I compared to the Hafler amp. Even the sales person was amazed that the tiny cube outperformed the larger, heavier, and more expensive Hafler amp.
The speakers I was using at the time, were also quite unique, and not widely known. They were the BES SM300’s. They were a flat panel omnidirectional speaker, that produced excellent bass, and was perfect for rocking out. Not quite as refined as the Magnapan speakers at the time, but being in my 20’s, bass reproduction was more important than refinement. The combination of the Carver amp, and BES speakers, shook the house and disturbed the neighbors on a regular basis.
I remember those amplifiers along with the Carver Amazing Loudspeaker. Heard them at Audio Designs in Whyte (defunct). Seemed impressive at the time, probably more the eye candy if I remember correctly.
Heard the Carver Amazings as well back around 1987ish
driven by Harman Citation pre power amp combo…
Indeed the sound was like their name Amazing…
Best wishes