PBJ/BJ's Carver Line Source Prototypes

[OldiesButGoodies]

The speakers are beautiful,  finished in black.   Listened to some Beatles and the reference standard,  Pat Barber.  A DSP 2x4  active crossover is used to pass only frequencies above 100 hz to the towers (and EQ things a bit,  I am sure),  the rest goes to a subwoofer.  They sounded as you would expect speakers in that price range to sound like:  wide/tall soundstage  and excellent imaging (Rev though it holographic), very accurate/precise,  as you would expect from a good line-source design.  So yes, I am envious - congrats PBJ! (custodian in possession). 

Audio by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

Audio by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

Audio by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

[MacGeek]

Very nice.  An outboard sub, I assume.

[geoffr]

Wowie zowie!

[bearjew]

Very nice.  An outboard sub, I assume.

The speakers go to about 100Hz and roll off from there.  We're using a sub, but it's just a cheap polk, as budget is a factor.  It really only tackles the super low stuff though, and it's doing the job quite well surprisingly.

[OldiesButGoodies]

Very nice.  An outboard sub, I assume.

The speakers go to about 100Hz and roll off from there.  We're using a sub, but it's just a cheap polk, as budget is a factor.  It really only tackles the super low stuff though, and it's doing the job quite well surprisingly.

Agree, did not sense the need for anything better,  maybe change its position a bit if that.  The bass was really good even w/o the sub.   

OBG 

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Really good subs will just get you evicted from an apartment.   Those are beautiful, I can't wait to hear them.

[papabearjew]

Looks like I'll be up especially late tonight. Pepe, thanks to you and Rev for helping BJ getting these set up. We did turn the sub 90° so the woofer is aiming right into the room. Talk about a wall of sound. These things are incredible. WAF was as expected (-) but she wasn't enamored about the Silvers either. I did have to move the clock to the left a bit.

[Kingman]

Congrats to PBJ!!!! Rock on!!!

[scorpio333]

Those look amazing! Glad you got them and enjoy them. WAF be damned, just keep her from hanging clothes on them!

[Jim Pittsburgh]

How do these differ from the Carver's? or are they Carver's without the name... should they be called James's?

[bearjew]

How do these differ from the Carver's? or are they Carver's without the name... should they be called James's?

These are the Carver prototypes without the crappy super tweeter, and they use an active EQ like they were originally supposed to have; the retail model has giant out-board passive crossovers.  They're still Carvers in my opinion.

[Jim Pittsburgh]

OK... confused. Thought you were getting a pair of James's custom designed / make speakers... that were suppose to be a better/ refined version of the Carver

[bearjew]

OK... confused. Thought you were getting a pair of James's custom designed / make speakers... that were suppose to be a better/ refined version of the Carver

Very long story for another day and another venue.  I'll give you a call this week if I have some time.  On my way to Baltimore right now.

[Kingman]

Bet they SOUND better than the production model.

[OldiesButGoodies]

Bet they SOUND better than the production model.

I just commented about them in the Stereophile TAS (The Absolute Sound) site.   I am sure they sound better without the massive mess created by a complicated passive x-over, but IMO they also look better without the supertweeter monstrosity on top.

These sounded great despite using a regular miniDSP 2x4 - which essentially means the sound is limited to 48Khz processing.  The sound would be improved further with a miniDSP HD (an easy future swap for BJ/PBJ).  The miniDSP approach also allows for tailoring the speakers to the room they are in (if you want to get geeky),  something the production model would not be able to accommodate.   

OBG