Are Carvin amps and cabs really any good?

The Heads are just great!, they are comparable to anything else on the market if not better.
They are reliable, and extremely versatile, you can get almost any sound out of them.

The cabs on the other hand are acceptable. They sound good but lack some low end and their efficiency isnt as high as SWR´s or Eden´s but for the money their are great.

Your best bet would be to pair a Carvin R1000 Head with an Eden D410XLT.
With that, you can have an awesome tone and volume.

 

yes! carvin stuff is great! (i know people are probably rolling their eyes by now...) anyways, I use a R600 head, with a 2x10 cab (carvin) and a 1x18 (home made). i love the head, and the drivers carvin uses are pretty good. theyre eminence as far as im aware. i think the red eye tweeters are fostex or motorola. the 2x10 is suprisingly loud/punchy for its size, but it does lack bottom end. i cant comment on their 15 or 18 inch cabs, as ive never heard them. i did hear a stack once using a RC210 combo (thats the 2x10 combo with the R600) and the RL410T cab. it was nice, 600 watts into a 6x10 stack... very very punchy and clean... but still lacking bottom. the only reason my rig has good bottom is becuase of the cab i built, but i still cant get sufficient volume out of it becuase the R600 can only put out 250 watts per channel at 4 ohms. Id highly reccomend carvins heads, and give their cabs a reccomendation if you cant spend huge amounts of money on an eden cab. but GET THE R1000!!!! for a minimal extra investment you will have a great deal more power and hence more headroom at your fingertips.

 

Tons of talk here about this in the archives. A not-so-humble suggestion: do a search in Amps with keyword "Carvin" and user name "MikeyD" . I've put in a few thousand "2 cents' worth" on it, as have many others.
- Mike

 

They is cheap and sounds cheap. My suggestion do not i repeat do not buy Carvin.

 

They is cheap, but do not sounds cheap.

I think that they is good values.

There is many people who had good things to says about Carvins.

 

Um no I bet you don't know a ****s worth about Carvin they are not cheaply made they are cheap in price but they are the best damn sounding amps out there, well equal with Ampeg.

 

Woah, nelly!! Yes, Carvin are very good amps for the price, but the best, I don't know. Not in my opinion. I think the Fender Bassman 400 is a much superior amp in that price range, but it has less watts.

 

In case you didn't notice, I was just making fun of bas_anton command of the English language.

 

I have a Carvin R600 head and 4x10 cab. It wasn't cheap, it was however what I need. For the price, it cannot be beat, by noone. Here's the difference, Carvin sells factory direct, by cutting out the middle man they save you and I cash. As for they're sound, ok so maybe the cab needs a little help, but the money I saved by buying the 4x10 and the head I can by an Ampeg 1x15 to drop underneath it and "Blam," I got tons of Ampeg sound with out the Ampeg inflated price tag. Sure ampeg and swr have they're own trademark tone that most people search for but look what they are asking for it and anything they sell in the price range of the Carvins have no useable stage power. Sure the 4x10 lacks the ability to handle a 5 string at extreme volumes but mine handles my 5 string just fine at stage volume. If you buy the R1000 and the 4x10 and add another manufacturer's 1x15 cab and biamp it you can send all the mids and highs to the 4x10 and keep the lows on the 15 and your money in your pocket where it belongs....

my $.02 worth...

BTW, I have had the head for quite some time passed the warranty and yesterday when I called them about the input jack being striipped they sent me the jack free of charge, will be here monday. Ask Ampeg for that, they'll tell you to hand it over to the nearest amp butcher for a couple months....thats what happened to me with a B3!

 

A honest personal appraisal of Carvin amps and cabs can be about as welcome here as telling someone how ugly their baby is

Given that, Carvin amps seem to be fine though the specs may be overblown and their cabs are merely okay. There's a reason they're less money and it's not the "no middle man" stuff... you get what you pay for. I honestly can't see where Carvin is as good overall as Peavey at this point and how much less is it?

The "best bang for the buck" is still used... by a long ways.

 

Carvin is good, nuff said.

 

I agree. Everyone else is lying.

[It should be noted that I most humbly bow to Brad's breadth of experience, but c'mon now.]

 

I think you may have misinterpreted what I was saying, Lump.

I'm not inferring that anyone is lying. I'm saying that if someone (not "everyone") is genuinely not impressed and says so, it tends to be taken as Carvin-bashing. The same sentiment was raised recently about the Mo' Bass amp.

Not sure if that clears it up or not

 

Of course, I didn't say you were wrong...

I haven't seen an anti-anti-Carvin backlash, but I'll take your word for it. Personally, I do like their stuff (and you didn't sound too shabby on an LB-75, if memory serves), but you're absolutely right - used is a better deal. But you could say that about just about any of the lower-priced gear, not just Carvin.

 

This was about Carvin amps and my main gripe is with their speakers. I appreciate the compliment on my LB-75, it was a nice fretless

There is a lot of hype in Carvin's pricing. I think some people truly believe they're buying at wholesale prices.

The reason I mentioned used was actually in reference to the higher priced stuff (one of my favorite subjects).

Let's say you (generally speaking) are in the market for a 2-10.

Given a choice between:

1. Carvin RL210T (new) ~$300
2. Eden D210XLT (used*) ~$400

Which is the better deal? Depends.

If you just want something to add to a cab that carries the lows, the RL210T is fine. The only time it may "hurt" is at resale and then you might only lose ~$150.

If OTOH you need a single cab that can carry the load in a lot of situations, the Eden might be the better choice. An added bonus is that by buying it used, depreciation is far less a factor... you could actually use the gear for a while, sell it and break even. My Eden's are worth more than I paid for them.

I don't think the numbers I put forth are far-fetched and if you do the math, using either cab for one year and selling it, the Eden would cost $0, the Carvin $150... more than the Eden. People tend to think of "bang for the buck" only in terms of the initial purchase. That same kind of thinking is why some people buy cheap tools over and over again (as they break or don't perform) while others buy good tools once.

There is definitely a cost of ownership factor that some people don't consider. There are some pretty amazing deals out there for higher end gear that has depreciated drastically. I could have bought a nice Dean or my almost new Cirrus for the same price, or bought a Redline amp or an Ashdown for less... guess which one I chose?

This isn't taking into consideration the huge difference in sound, one of my higher priorities

*assuming all gear is in excellent condition.

 

That's right those middlemen don't add a dime to the cost of amps. You'll always get the best deal at your local music store instead of Carvin. There's no mark up on musical instruments!

 

ImNot.. to answer your question

amps, yes
cabs, no.

IME

 

Carvin is excellent gear for the money, but if you think their amps or cabs can hold a candle to Eden, Ampeg, SWR, Ashdown, or any of the other top players, then you've smoked too much - that, or you presently own a Carvin and aren't emotionally willing to accept the truth.

 

Not to add fuel to the fire, but my input jacks from Carvin arrived today, at no cost! Ordered them thursday and voila! here they are on saturday, two day priority mail, also free of charge. Now my amp is back to top notch condition with no down time, hmmm, how long do you think ampeg would take to fix a problem with your amp?

I will agree with you, Carvin is no eden or swr or ampeg, when it comes to getting "that" tone. But this argument is like to rednecks spitting at each other in a battle of Ford Or Chevy!

Theres no eden 2x10 or an swr redhead sitting in a pawn or music shop used around here, and even if there is its not going to be any cheaper than the 4x10 I bought at Carvin. Oh sure, you might be able to find one in a paper that someone wants to sell, and maybe they are in a crunch for cash so they let it go cheap. But not everyday, and it is probably someplace other than here! I looked for used for a long time, what I bought was Carvin, and I stand behind them for the value and "the service." While you guys are looking for that once in a lifetime cab for 150 bucks, I'll be right here playing my Carvin rig....
with a warranty.....

Jay