[Atomic_gerbil]

I am in the market for a new amp, because my little 30w roland just isn't cutting it. My buddy suggested I look at Carvin, because they have some pretty good stuff. I found the solid state series to be pretty good for the price, and I hope to have mine ordered in the next week or so.

Does anyone own one of these amps or have an opinion about them?

[Jongpil Yun]

If you have a Roland Cube 30x, stick with it until you can afford a tube amp. Going from one SS amp to another in most cases just doesn't cut it. There are some die hard SS lovers, but they're few and far between. Most people agree that tube amps sound much better.

My two cents.

[Bartok]

Frank Gambalé went from a marshall tube to one of the carvin's according to my mate (though I can't find where he got it from) so they can't be bad. I quite fancy checking them out but they aren't available in the UK so it'd be a hassle running it through a step down all the time etc. Unless they have switchable voltage, but that seems unlikely if they're only available in the US (as far as I can see).
Disagree about SS amps all being the same- why should they be any more than tube amps? Better components and circuit design gives you better sound, simple. If you put a properly designed tube amp (hifi/guitar/PA/whatever) against a properly designed solid state amp in a blind test, very very few people can actually work out which is which. It's just pretty glowing bottles syndrome.

[Atomic_gerbil]

Originally Posted by Bartok

Frank Gambalé went from a marshall tube to one of the carvin's according to my mate (though I can't find where he got it from) so they can't be bad. I quite fancy checking them out but they aren't available in the UK so it'd be a hassle running it through a step down all the time etc. Unless they have switchable voltage, but that seems unlikely if they're only available in the US (as far as I can see).
Disagree about SS amps all being the same- why should they be any more than tube amps? Better components and circuit design gives you better sound, simple. If you put a properly designed tube amp (hifi/guitar/PA/whatever) against a properly designed solid state amp in a blind test, very very few people can actually work out which is which. It's just pretty glowing bottles syndrome.

aha, that's so true.

Also, when I said "Just isn't cutting it" I meant that it wasn't big enough for my tastes, and didn't have the feel I wanted.

[Bartok]

Go for it dude, at that price it isn't the end of the world if it doesn't work out. Your other option would be one of the Alesis RA series. I have a pair of RA500's for monitoring (which incidentally, replaced my tube amps ) and they sound pretty damn good for the money- £150 each ($300), 500W per side using them bridged, replacing £2K of tube amps. Not a bad deal IMO, not entirely better than the tube amps but I can take slightly worse sound for the convenience.
I wouldn't recommend the 500's if you plan to move them about a lot though because they're f'in heavy, try the smaller model (they do a 1U, I think it's the RA300, lower powered but still 300W bridged to mono).

[Atomic_gerbil]

Originally Posted by Bartok

Go for it dude, at that price it isn't the end of the world if it doesn't work out. Your other option would be one of the Alesis RA series. I have a pair of RA500's for monitoring (which incidentally, replaced my tube amps ) and they sound pretty damn good for the money- £150 each ($300), 500W per side using them bridged, replacing £2K of tube amps. Not a bad deal IMO, not entirely better than the tube amps but I can take slightly worse sound for the convenience.
I wouldn't recommend the 500's if you plan to move them about a lot though because they're f'in heavy, try the smaller model (they do a 1U, I think it's the RA300, lower powered but still 300W bridged to mono).

Alright man, thanks for your help. I think I may order the Carvin in about a week. (Still need ~70$ USD). I always appreciate a positive opinon!

[Shikaru]

Originally Posted by Bartok

I quite fancy checking them out but they aren't available in the UK so it'd be a hassle running it through a step down all the time etc. Unless they have switchable voltage, but that seems unlikely if they're only available in the US (as far as I can see).

Guitar Lefty, Left handed guitars online, Home page is a UK Carvin dealer. I got my TS100 from there, and he can order in pretty much anything from Carvin as far as I know.