carvin R1000 head bad reliability?

I don't know if they had the series III or the series II head... the series II had a real 12ax7 in the preamp, and no speakon outputs. I had a series II for a few years and it worked great for me. I bought it used, so it had been around for a few months longer than i had it.
I never had any problems, and played at pretty loud volumes, outside sometimes. Once i dropped the thing in its rack case, the ears on the side were bent pretty bad but the amp still functoined fine.
I can't speak for anyone else.. but my carvin RL1000 was a workhorse.

its up to you what you hear... i can tell you without a doubt that i would never buy another carvin cabinet, but their heads are really good.
Personally i like the sound of ampeg more, but i just may be one of the people subscribing to the "if it costs more, it must be better" mentality. Play all the heads you can extensively, and find out if the price difference is worth it to you.

I found the R series heads coupled with the Sans Amp Bass Driver to sound very warm and punchy.

Alone, it's still a good head, but the addition of the SABDDI sounds very nice.

I haven't had any reliability issues yet, and I drive my R600 pretty hard most of the time. I would say I've been using their heads for 6 mos to a year.

Ive had my r600 series 2 for about 4 years now.
It's seen quite a lot of work, and has never had a problem. The tube went kerplooey about 6 months ago, but that's not exactly a defect. It took about 15 minutes to change it out, and it actually sounded better with a high quality tube.

My R600 has been a workhorse... never a problem with the head since Nov. 1998...

-robert

I don't know what it is regarding those kind of reviews.

My series II R1000 and R600 won't quit. They just pump out, reliably month after month, year after year. And they get thrown around and loaded poorly in trucks.

Maybe a lot of the unreliability reports are from people who don't know how to gain stage an amp, a bad month at the Carvin factory, or a combo of both.

I know a lot of doofuses think the R heads are "plug n' play," never had tour-quality gear, don't read the manual thoroughly up front, and throw the heads into "Protect Mode" repeatedly.

I bought a used Carvin R600 head in January under the assumption that was a series III head. I later discovered that it is a series I head. It still is great. I have had no problems with it. I can't say that I'm overly impressed with the Carvin 2x10 cab I bought with it, but it still has good sound. I recently added a Goliath II 4x10 cab to it and used the crossover function that the Red line series heads have and I am getting a really really good sound through the stack. I have had no problems with the head. I think they are a good deal for the money, if you like the sound.

Rickbass, not to sound dump, but, what is gain stage an amp mean.

I have had my R600 for two months, I also use it with a sansamp bass driver, GREAT tone and plenty of head room. It kicks serious booty. Any brand head can have problems, im a service tech. (not for amps) and a LOT of problems are with people who dont read the manual, and miss use it, or try to do something it cant.

And rickbass are you rick123 over at carvin.

George

Originally posted by rich37
I read the reviews of this amp at the Harmony central and BGRA.net site and almost everybody who had this amp for 6 months and longer had to cope with bad reliability.
Can I have your opinions about this?

GRTZ. Richard

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Dude, no offense, but just how carefully did you read those reviews? At H-C, by my count, 2 out of 7 people had major problems. At BGRA, 1 out of 3 did (counting the person with the RL1018 stack). That's more than a maker would like to have, certainly, but to equate a minority with "almost everybody" is kinda ridiculous, don't you think?

I had an R600 that I returned because it wouldn't play nice with a 4 ohm Acme in bridged mode. Otherwise a solid and great-sounding amp IMO. I also used to have a Carvin ProBass 500 that simply could not be killed.

It's not as if the competitors are perfect. I've seen my share of dead and dying G-Ks, for example, and my brother used to have an SVT that could not be kept out of the shop for more than a month at a time (he dumped it eventually and was a happier man for it).

Why? Are you thinking about buying one? If you are, consider this.

The Carvin R1000 sells for $649

A QSC RMX1450 power amp sells for $399 and a Sansamp RBI preamp sells for $299. That's a total price of $698. So for a lousey extra 50 bucks you can get something much much better.

Originally posted by Mudbass
The Carvin R1000 sells for $649

A QSC RMX1450 power amp sells for $399 and a Sansamp RBI preamp sells for $299. That's a total price of $698. So for a lousey extra 50 bucks you can get something much much better.

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Don't forget, you'll need another $50-100 for the rack box and patch cables.

Plus, the Carvin DCM amp and RBI is a better deal, and IMO better. The QSC PLX are great but the RMX's kinda stick, especially compared to Carvin Poweramps.

Originally posted by Mudbass
A QSC RMX1450 power amp sells for $399 and a Sansamp RBI preamp sells for $299. That's a total price of $698. So for a lousey extra 50 bucks you can get something much much better.

Click to expand...

Much much better? Matter of opinion. Having played and owned both Carvin and SansAmp (multiple pieces of each), I'd take the Carvin without hesitation. That is a killer deal on the RMX, however; I can't think of a better power amp deal out there now.

I think the R600 is a great head and has a lot of versatility in the sound. However, I have had some issues with mine. About 1 year ago I got the full Carvin setup (R600 2x10 and 1x15). Within about 2 weeks radio started coming from my head whenever I touched anything (and it was coming out louder than my bass sound). I believe it was a grounding problem. Carvin sent me a new replacement R600 and paid to ship the bad one back. Then just recently my amp started buzzing. I opened it up and found a capacitor on the power module wasn't soldered correctly and was bent not making a good connection. I decided to call them on the phone (since it was the last month of my warranty) they said they could send me a new cap, but I needed to pull the power module out to give them the number. When I did that "POW" the entire power module blew (yes I had it unplugged and yes I know better than to touch anything metal). This time I had to send the amp to them at my expense (even though they said to do what I did over the phone) and it took them a month to fix it and get it back to me. I got it back yesterday and it sounds as good as new. I plan to keep it for a long time as it matches well with my current cabs (two Aggie 1x12s) however, this is just to let you know that the Carvin gear isn't bulletproof. the capacitor issue with mine was a manufacturing fault. Basically I got 2 bad amp heads from them. But I plan to keep my repaired one for as long as it lasts (as I am now out of warranty).

-KB

I've had a RL1000 series II for about 2 years now, never had serious problems. The DI out on the back is a little loose, so when soundguys are rough I have to open the amp and snap it back in place. Don't tell the Carvin people

Seriously though, never had a problem with it, even bridging into a 4 ohm load (not an acme cab). Blew the circuit breaker in a club once, but that's not my fault.

I also think the head sounds better than SWR, ampeg. Maybe not stuff costing twice as much, but I'd rather spend money on the bass. . .

Hey Boys....
I've had the series III 600 watt 2 x 10 combo for about a year. As far as tone goes, it's almost what I want. I'm looking a add an aguilar 15 cab to get what's missing. If I run them in series I should be able to get the volume I need.
One complaint I have is that the tube emulation circuit does a poor job. It just occured to me that if your 600 watt head isn't loud enough the guys you play with need to turn down!!! f****n guitar players..........

Stay Hard....
Master P

I have the RL1000 with the RL 8x10 cab.

Head: Great! 1000 watts, HUGE EQ, compressor, crossover, bridging, distortion (and nice clean tone!), under 700 bucks!!

Cab: Well,, I'm starting to regret not playing a 5 or 6 thru this cab before I bought it. It DOES NOT handle bass response below G on a four string. It's got punchy sound,, and if you slap or pick on a four string (like I usually do), this should do the trick nicely,, but it doesn't cut it for lower bassy type stuff.

So,, I'll probably eventually sacrafice the 8x10 and get some Aguilar cabs!