Junk

[tonefight]

Let me share an experience here :

While shopping for a Pa system about a year and a half ago I noticed alot of peopel using Carvin gear and sounded pretty good, I also liked there guitar parts so I figured there Pa gear would be ok too. So after pricing several brands and so on, I started buying some Carvin Pa gear while the band was practicing and it sounded pretty good in the small practice room.

So anyway about this point people start telling me how junky it is, like an ass I stick up for my gear " No, good stuff "

So we finally get things together and start playing out...... first night out we loose a horn ( keep in mind I'm timid with the system ) So I plug it in the next day to check it out its fine , next job loose a horn again......... get on the phone with Carvin on monday " Oh, well it seems you bought 2 of the 1st 100 made of that model we had a problem with them overheating ( active cabs with internal amps ) Gee I never got a phone call or anything, surely a reputable company would know where the 1st 100 cabs went too and be able to contact you right ? Not Carvin ? ( Yes I sent in my warranty cards too )

So they are going to send me boxes to ship them back in, wouldn't you ship them flat and broken down? Not Carvin they sent us 2 boxes 4' x 2' x 2' FULL OF PACKING PEANUTS !!!! What the hell do ya do with all those? So they go for a ride to california ( meanwhile I gotta get all my friends to bail me out with a Pa )

I get them back play one show they work fine, Now we got a little time off so I take em in the practice room and I'm playing them at a low volume.......... the horn goes out.

At this point I have to go out and buy another set of top cabs , I finally talk them into a credit and use my Carvin credit to buy basically a bunch of junk and a power amp, I open the box for the power amp " Didn't know power amps were now coming with moving parts inside " ............ Oh its F@#%ed up........ sent it back. Most of the other stuff I got on credit turned out to be poorly built also.

Now my subs are giving me headaches, one sounds different than the other and is weaker....... its an active cab too so now I'm gonna rip all the guts out and buy new ( different brand ) speakers and a ( different brand ) power amp. I still owe money on the original system but damn near replaced everything already.

MORAL OF THE STORY DON"T BUY CARVIN ITS JUNK, you'll regret it.

[Asundor]

Just was wondering where you had bought your Carvin eguipment from.
I use to have 2 Carvin Monitors and I blew out the horn in one of them. Not because of to much noise either. I only had them for maybe 2 month's
and really diden't even get much playing time on them. I agree Carvin eguip, is junk. I paid a decent amount of money for those and had sold them to someone I no really cheap just because I just wanted to get some of my money back out of them. Honestly I have always thought Carvin eguip was overly exspensive anyway. Jason/CYPHIN

[bassist_25]

I have some experience with Carvin equipment and all of it has been positive. A LB75 has been on my wish list for a few years now. I need to build that SWR rig first though.

[tonefight]

I have some experience with Carvin equipment and all of it has been positive. A LB75 has been on my wish list for a few years now. I need to build that SWR rig first though.

I'll exclude the guitars and basses, I have 2 guitars built up with carvin necks and several other carvin guitar parts that i like along with the 2 wireless systems haven't had trouble with them but there Pa gear has given me nothing but head aches.......... They should drop their PA line and concentate on what they are goods at wich is guitars

[Dave]

MORAL OF THE STORY DON"T BUY CARVIN ITS JUNK, you'll regret it.

I'll have to disagree with that. I don't know about the powered speakers, but I have Carvin TR Series tops and several DCM2000 amps. They work great.

The issue you had with the power amp isn't because the amp is junk, it sounds like an overzealous UPS guy.

I don't doubt you had a bad experience, but I think it is a little much to say that all thier PA stuff is junk. They have been at it for a long time (30 years). For the price it is kind of hard to beat.

Honestly I have always thought Carvin eguip was overly exspensive anyway.

Compared to what? Carvin equipment is some of the lowest cost equipment you can find.

[redawg]

I'm very sorry to hear about your expierence Tony. The first piece of Carvin gear I bought was a bass guitar cabinet with 4 tens and a horn. I got it for $175. used at Johnny B. Goods (Spelling?) out by Pittsburgh. I can't say enough good things about that bass cab. Never had one problem with it. The guy I sold it to almost 5 years ago still loves the cab. My next Carvin purchace was an 8 channel powered head, 2 tops with a 12 and a horn in each and 2 single 15 cabs. The drivers I blew out of the 15's was my own fault and Carvin replaced every one of them for me. People say alot of mixed things about the Castle Pub's Carvin system. In my humble opinion, I think the Castle's system POUNDS! We have two of their active monitors. One of them got broken when someone stepped on the XLR cable going into it. When I called Carvin and asked them to send me a new module, they said that series of monitors weren't made any longer. They told me to send BOTH monitors back so they could replace them with 2 of the newest series. The only real problem I have had so far with the 3-way 1584's is the crossovers burnt out a couple of times from giving them too much wattage. I blew a mid channel on one and a hi channel on another. Carvin actually sells me parts for the crossovers and I solder them in myself. As for the horns, they don't make me buy the whole horn. They sell me the voice coil caps for $35.00 each. I have 3 spares in case I ever blow one. Call them and get a little stern with them. Tell them the whole situation, bitch at them if you have to. I've bitched at them before. They don't want to see an unhappy customer. They have always worked with me. Hope it works out for you brutha.

[tom]

I use several pieces of carvin gear, and have had pretty good luck with their products.
Any time we have had a problem, their customer service has taken very good care of us.
To give you an idea we are using (4) ea Carvin dual 15 x horn cabinets, (4) ea single carvin 18 subs mounted in Peavey boxes.
We use (2)ea Carvin DCM2000 amps for th subs, as well as a Carvin 4 channel amp for the monitors. We also use some carvin monitors........

Geez, with all of this carvin equipment , we should be getting a sponsorship from them!

Seriously, for the money, you won't find gear any better

[onetooloud]

It is good to see people who have had good experiences with carvin gear.

I've been around when Tonefight has had his Pa out and about, and its never been above what I'd call a tickle (but then again thats not noise police dbs). It should not have been breaking.

I'll also tell ya, it takes quite a bit to get Tone on the soapbox, so if he's on the soapbox theres a damn good reason for it.

I did see an act just a few nights ago using carvin gear and it didn't sound bad. The thing I noticed was all the carvin name plates where taken off.

I see the words customer service echoed quite a bit here in dealing with carvin equip why? Do you really want to be dealing with customer service at all?

[lonewolf]

F^%$k money! Buy Electro-Voice for maximum output with minimum problems and in some cases, minimum backache. I do believe they are now at the top of the mass producers audio heap, with JBL and EAW being bought out by those who would water them down.

My satisfied $.02

Add On:

My philosophy with live-sound audio equipment is that it is more important to buy the highest quality where the air and the diaphragms meet, meaning the microphones and speakers. Nothing contributes to the sound as much as these critical components. You can use a cheap 1000Wrms power amp on a high-quality speaker and it will sound great. If you reverse that and use a high quality 1000Wrms power amp to drive a low-quality speaker, it will sound like crap. Of course, with mics, its garbage in, garbage out.

As far as mixers, processing and poweramps, sure there are some audible differences, but unless its really noisy stuff, you can get a good sound out of just about anything as long as you have quality mics, speakers and the power amps have the power to drive them properly.

[red]

When I used to play electric bass, I had a Carvin bass amp for a while. The 4-10 cabinet went twice and the 18 cabinet went twice. I also had the head blow once. I'll never use Carvin stuff again! Thats my .02 cents!

[tonefight]

I just copied this off Carvins forum, its funny cause people are always writing on there bitchin then there post gets deleted and you never see their name again. They just keep the good posts on there.

This poor guy I know EXACTLY what he is going through

"Ok what are we doing wrong? We purchased $6000.00 worth of PA equipment about a year ago from Carvin. We have had to send the 1588A's back 3 times now. The 15" woofers quit working. Are we doing something wrong? This weekend, both stacks quit working. Last week everything worked fine."