Jim and Tootie

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1800.00 from Hawkeye Audio

Summary:
I have always been impressed by plannar speaker sound so when I stopped in at my local audio store they had the Carvers on sale and took my Paradigm monitors on trade for what I paid. So I only had to pay $1100 for a brand new pair in 1993.I agree with all the comments about these speakers. My electronics at that time were very high end. Audio Research D90B modified tube amp and a SP9MKII preamp. While this amp was only 90W/RMS it produced massive current due to huge capacitors and transformers. Theses made the Carvers sing. So better amps will only make them sound better. The bass is excellent. You do not need subwoofers. One more note. This product was named as one of the top 50 speaker designs of all time. So they are rapidly becoming collecters items. Currnet ribbon speakers are cost prohibitive and do not sound much different than the Carvers.

Strengths:
Best speaker for the money and one of the beat period that you can own.

Weaknesses:
Need strong clean amp and good sized room.

Similar Products Used:
Dahlquist DQ10

Price Paid:  $2000.00 from toronto

Summary:
great speakers. Hands down one of the best for the money. Paired up with good cables and a great cd player one is in sonic nirvana. The open natural sound is intoxicating. Martin Logans are only slighly better... but for a whole lot more. Oneis able to pick out each intrument and there location within the sinic field. Amazing!! Get kimber silver streak cables. They are a perfect match for the carvers.

Strengths:
pen natural sound. Great for classical to Heavy House Grooves. Plays louder than live and great for low level baroque pieces and jazz trios.

Weaknesses:
Moving the Suckers

Similar Products Used:
tried 'em all.

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from via internet

Summary:
I've owned speakers from a variety of manufacturers over the years ... Pinnacle, Polk, KLH, AR, Realistic, and so on. Never had an electrostatic or a ribbon, though I've heard Martin Logans and Maggies, and like their transparency, among other traits. Recently purchased a set of the ALS III+'s and all I can say is "wow". I read EVERY review I could find before deciding this would be my next set of speakers. I bought them without even hearing them based upon what I had read. There is very sound theory behind using a minimal number of drivers to cover the entire audible range. No phase shift between drivers. Smoother response. Less glare, etc, etc, not to mention the dipole radiation pattern gives a nature 'air' as it most closely approximates the way sound emanates in a live environment. All of it simply makes sense. In a nutshell: The Carvers are awesome. They're also hungry, feed them sufficient good clean power and they will reward you with the sound you've probably been looking for. They sing like angels. These ARE the real deal. I think I'm in love~!! (lol)

Strengths:
Imaging. Presence. Vocal reproduction. Bass punch. Clarity. They have it all.

Weaknesses:
Size. Weight. Power hungry. Sound somewhat 'distant' at low volume levels. Hard to find nowadays ... no one wants to sell~!! Look for the new ALS 5's due out shortly from the newly reborn Carver, with Bob Carver back at the helm where he belongs~!!

Similar Products Used:
AR, Polk, Pinnacle, KLH, Realistic, etc.

Price Paid:  $1700.00

Summary:
I have listened to these speakers for about 6 years now. I bought them after several years of shopping to replace our Boston Acoustic T1000’s. These speakers were the only speakers I have heard that give me a truly transcendent experience. But, I don’t shop much now. Even after all this time, they can still amaze me. I have never reached their full potential.

Physically. these speakers are imposing and dominate the room that they are in. They do not take up much floor space, but the height of the ribbon panel draws your attention.

These are complex speakers in design and sound. They can sound bad or good depending on how they are set up in a room and what equipment is used with them. This probably accounts for some of the conflicting statements made in the previous reviews

Experiment a lot with placement. Not easy with these 85 lb speakers. These are dipole speakers. They put out just as much sound from the rear of the ribbon panel as they do from the front. So, their relationship to the wall behind them, and to the rest of the room is important. They need to sit further out in the room than most people are used to placing their speakers. If they are placed to close to the wall behind them they will sound muddy. They should not be placed against the side wall. Objects behind the speakers have an effect on the sound. It is tempting to set accent lights just behind the ribbon, on top of the woofer. Resist the urge.

Properly placed, these speaker have a sound that is so balanced that you tend to play them louder, with less ear fatigue, than you would other speaker systems. When properly set up, there are no large peaks in the frequency spectrum to make these speakers sound artificially loud like a bad table radio does. They also do not develop harsh peaks when they play loud. As you turn them up you can quickly lose perspective on just how loud they are playing.

These speakers will reveal problems in the other components in a stereo chain. Don’t worry about this. At first you will be overwhelmed by the sound of the speakers and the improvement they make in your stereo system. Existing problems will not get worse just because you added these speakers (unless your amp is not up to driving the speakers, or your previous speakers hid an existing problem). But, later when you change out components you will hear more difference between the old and new than you would with most other speakers. When auditioning new stereo equipment, at the least, listen to the new component on an equally revealing system at the showroom. Take the component home if you can.

There is some confusion about the power needed to drive these speakers in the previous reviews. These speakers are not as power hungry as most planar speakers, but are more power hungry than most cone based speakers. They are low impedance speakers, approx. 4 ohm. And, they have the ability to reproduce a very wide dynamic range. This can make them hard to drive.

Can lesser amps play these speakers? Sure they can. And possibly sound more beautiful at lower volumes than a powerful amp. Just don’t expect them to play loud without problems.

These speakers need a lot of current to play dynamic full range music at concert volumes. After much research on power amps I settled on a PS Audio Delta 100. The Delta 100 can be found used these days for $450, and there are lots of other amps out there with the PS Audio’s qualities. This power amp is rated at only 100 watts per channel, but it is capable of delivering huge amounts of current over short periods of time. This is due to the output capacitors. They are HUGE. Capacitors this large have the ability to deliver lots of current very fast. These capacitors are capable of taking care of large musical peaks. The output transistors are also large. They can take the heat of continuous loud music without damage. With this amp and these speakers, your neighbors may complain before your system does. These speakers also benefit from an amp with a high dampening factor.

Ribbon drivers have special qualities. The ribbon on this speaker has the mass of a conventional tweeter and the surface area of an 8 inch cone speaker. This is why it can play loud and clean. However, ribbons have resonance’s. This ribbon has a resonance around 3000 Hz, right where the ear is most sensitive. There is even a knob for adjusting this frequency on the back on the speaker. If the speaker sounds harsh (or dull), try adjusting this knob to get a good balance. Because of these resonance’s, ribbons do no produce the highest frequencies as well as the best tweeters. If these speakers seem to have too much high frequency, the 3000 Hz resonance may need adjustment, or there is a problem in the system, either with the speakers or another component.

You are more likely to blow the woofer, or your amp before blowing the ribbon. This happened at the showroom where we bought our speakers. The ribbon is well protected from damage. Our ribbon has shown no signs of problems from being stretched after six years. We don’t play them loud very often or for very long.

These speakers are very musical, and a bargain for it.

Strengths:
Musicality, transparency, dynamics.

Weaknesses:
Hard to set up. Big.

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Pre-owned

Summary:
The ALSIII+'s were purchased 2nd hand out of the local newspaper. The original owner took obvious good care of these speakers and was driving them with a big Adcom amp. I had been using Vandersteen 2ce's for about 4 years but always wanted a dynamic/ribbon loudspeaker since hearing several of the Apogee line years ago. Don't get me wrong, I like the Vandersteen product line alot and still own 'em!

Like all audio 'types' we get the urge to move on and try new stuff. Well, sometimes used is just as good and this is what I have found with the Carvers.

Soaring vocals, sizzling hi-hats, fat tasty horns, articulate basslines and sometimes jaw dropping performances out of well recorded music. Of course, lousy stuff sounds lousy :) but it ain't the speakers fault! What many will not believe is the associated components now being used with the ALSIIIs:

Rotel 800 series cd player
B&K ST 140 amp!
B&K Pro? 5 preamp!
Onkyo tuner
Audioquest type '4' cables, bi-wired.
Audioquest interconnects (da cheep ones)

I listen to mostly alternative, brit, psychedelic, garage rock as well as modern jazz, a little classical and other modern stuff like Radiohead, REM, Maniacs, Cowboy Junkies, Oasis, Who, Stones, Beatles etc etc etc. As I said, well recorded music sounds great even on this budget system. Yes, if we rock out, the amp gets hot. But at low to moderate levels the little B&K holds up really well!

Find a pair of these 6' monsters and be prepared to be blown away. I am 110% satisfied. Nuf Ced.

Strengths:
Imaging, dynamics, presence.

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Merlin, Vandersteen