Sick of solid state

J

james...

Experienced
My Carvin DCM600 isn't doing it. Every since the first day I got it. Let me elaborate.

I didn't really have much trouble with it until I finally played a show where it just couldn't get loud enough. Had it BRIDGED at 4 ohms into a 4x12 and all the way up. Just couldn't do it. I could hear myself okay but not as much as I needed to.

Time to buy a VHT again.
 
james... said:
I never had any problems from my tube power amps. I treat my stuff GOOD. You'd think solid state would at least be reliable.
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SS amps are, everything else being equal, far more reliable than tube amps.

Design and/or manufacturing quality is independent of whether an amp is SS or tube based.

When something is obviously wrong with one channel of an amp - as it was with your Carvin - it might be safe to use the other channel, but you're only asking for trouble when you try to use both channels, as you do when you put the amp in bridge mode.
 
Never had a problem with my DCM600 ... Works like a champ and its been through a regional tour already,

Mik.
 
Keep in mind, not all SS amps are created equal. There are plenty of crappy tube amps out there too.
 
It's the classic tube vs. SS (and modeler) conundrum:

  • Tube amps will fail. That's the nature of tubes. Sooner or later a tube will crap out on you, even in a properly maintained amp. That's why they make it (relatively) easy to replace tubes--not so we can customize our tone by swapping tubes. ;) [/*:m:2t4eqx00]
  • SS amps are not designed with the expectation of component failure. As a result, you're pretty much SOL when a component poops the bed where a tube amp can generally get back on its feet by replacing a fuse and a couple tubes.[/*:m:2t4eqx00]

Pick your poison.
 
All I'm saying is I have had 2 solid state amps go bad on me. I think (besides a few) they are generally made cheaper than tube stuff.

I have had over 10 tube amps. Never any problems. Sure, once I had a Peavey Classic blow a fuse on me. But OH BOY it took a whole 4 minutes to fix.
 
What makes me sad is the fact that my solid states have sounded (basically) just as good as the tube stuff.

Wish they would work though.
 
james... said:
What makes me sad is the fact that my solid states have sounded (basically) just as good as the tube stuff.

Wish they would work though.
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Buy a better quality SS power amp. Not saying Carvin is a poorly made amp but it is a budget amp for sure. QSC, Crown or if your feeling upper crust buy a Crest Audio.
 
Sick of solid state!? Lol. I'm so happy to kiss tubes goodbye. Tubes blowing out, replacing matched sets for 100+ bucks a pop, matched phase inverter tubes, burning my fingers on hot glass, warm uptime, burn in time, microphonics, tapping tubes with a pencil, loose tube sockets, biasing, weighing 2000 pounds... I can't go on it's making me irrate lol.

Solidstate without axe fx poweramp simulation I would accept all the pitfalls, but with all the glorius axefx magic I gladly wave bye bye to that tube hassle. I mean you Can throw a carvin and have no problems. Try that with a mesa/marshall/vht lol.
 
Sixstring said:
james... said:
What makes me sad is the fact that my solid states have sounded (basically) just as good as the tube stuff.

Wish they would work though.
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Buy a better quality SS power amp. Not saying Carvin is a poorly made amp but it is a budget amp for sure. QSC, Crown or if your feeling upper crust buy a Crest Audio.
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is that true I always thought carvin was a quality poweramp?
 
Id say its pretty budget. So is the Art SLAs. I have an SLA-1 and its OK - but the fan has started making a real noise when the unit is cold. I may have to change it (had it 11 months).

If you look at decent quality ss amps there around the same price as the messa and VHT valve amps - though generally a lot more powerfull, and lighter. Its a myth to think that SS amps are cheaper than valve ones. Quality ones are the same kind of money.

Thing is, there arnt any budget valve power amps :D
 
Buy a better brand. I've had dozens of SS amps through the years. The only ones I've had problems with were Carvin and Peavey (had two CS800X's and both developed the same problem). I've also had plenty of tube amps and, in general, had more problems with them.

My QSC, Crown and Crest amps have thousands of hours on them and never an issue. Carvin's are a budget brand.
 
FractalAudio said:
Buy a better brand. I've had dozens of SS amps through the years. The only ones I've had problems with were Carvin and Peavey (had two CS800X's and both developed the same problem). I've also had plenty of tube amps and, in general, had more problems with them.

My QSC, Crown and Crest amps have thousands of hours on them and never an issue. Carvin's are a budget brand.
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do these other power amps sound better then the carvins or is it just reliabilty that's better?
 
rsf1977 said:
Sixstring said:
james... said:
What makes me sad is the fact that my solid states have sounded (basically) just as good as the tube stuff.

Wish they would work though.
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Buy a better quality SS power amp. Not saying Carvin is a poorly made amp but it is a budget amp for sure. QSC, Crown or if your feeling upper crust buy a Crest Audio.
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is that true I always thought carvin was a quality poweramp?
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Carvin has always been an entry level product. Go to any of the respected Pro audio forums and ask. I would compair to the likes of a Crate tube (Carvin) amp vrs Crest Audio say VHT.
 
Sixstring said:
rsf1977 said:
Carvin has always been an entry level product. Go to any of the respected Pro audio forums and ask. I would compair to the likes of a Crate tube (Carvin) amp vrs Crest Audio say VHT.
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I'm new to solidstate amps when i got my axe it's the first one i ever used really. What is it about the other amps that makes them better exactly, just trying to see if I'm going to need to go ona spending spree lol. If you put a crest next to a carvin would you hear the difference?
 
Better build quality, better componants, better design.

In some cases, better specifications (in terms of audio). By that I mean a flatter response, lower % harmonic distortion, wider freq range.

A Lot of people believe than an amp with 20hz to 20 Khz freq range is good. Thats not quite true. OK its the acepted range of human hearing (at its absolute best) but there are harmonics generated above that freq. If the amp cant produce these harmonics because of its freq limitation you get relections down into the audible range.

Think of the amps upper Freq threshold as a vertical mirror'd wall, and your audio as a beam of light comming down at an angle. The Audio Freq is where it strikes the ground. If a haronic is a higher Freq than the amps upper freq, it hits the wall (or mirror in this analogy) rather than the floor and is reflected back into the audible range where it THEN strikes the floor. this causes artifacts and distorions in the freqs you can hear.

In truth, the higher the upper freq, the better audio reproduction you get (check out pre audios in my recent thread - the upper freq is quoted at 120 Khz !!!) - but like anything it costs. How much you "need" it is down to you. Many wont need it - some will.
 
paulmapp8306 said:
If the amp cant produce these harmonics because of its freq limitation you get relections down into the audible range.
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This is completely incorrect where analog amplification is concerned.
 
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