Carvin TS100 Poweramp

I've had this for quite a while, and I thought it would be nice to post up a review for anyone looking for a cheap tube-poweramp.



Features: 10
Features on a poweramp? No I am not smoking weed... It can switch between EL34's and 6L6 tubes. To bias them, you only need to flip a switch on the inside. It has 2 channels, 100W and 50W. It operates at 4, 8, and 16 ohms. You can also bridge the 100W, or have it 2x50W Stereo. I'm not tech-savy, so I have no clue what that means, but tehre is a switch for it! The front of it is metal I'm guessing? and it's shiny, and I can see myself in it.

Sound: 9
Obviously, it just amplifies the sound, and there isn't much more to it... but, w/o the tubes, cleans are very dry and stale. When you turn up the tubes though, it's all of a sudden warms up and just sounds great. It has a perfect, natural tube reverb, which Line 6 has failed to deliver properly on their POD products.=D When you turn up the presence of the tubes, you can hear it gradually getting gainier, and gainier, with distortion on. Full blast is just fucking awesome! I noticed for a while, that it sounds much more metal when it's in a room that's like 80 degrees. The instructions say to let the tubes warm up for a good 30 seconds, but to get the true intensity of the tubes, leave it on for at least 2 minutes, and it'll just roar.

Build: 7
It looks all nice and all... very clean, but I just get the impression that if I were to smack it with something, the thing would break off like no toher. The knobs feel as if they could be broken off if I were to apply some pressure to it. I've also read some reviews about the screws on the top being stripped after taking the cover off. I haven't taken it off yet, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Worth: 10
I think it's worth the $500. It's clean, and it has some powerful tubes in it which combined with my XT Live, pwn the shit out of so many other people's rigs.

Loudness?: 10
Depends. I can the 100W channel at 25% and play in my house without bothering the neighbors next door (townhouse, thin 6" thick wall). But, if I turn it up to 50%, my neighbors 2 doors over can hear it... and all the way, well, you better be in a big room or outside... because it goes fuckin LOUD. Basically, the beginning is very loose for low-level playing, and as you turn it up, the volume level gets touchy when you turn the knob. A little turn makes a lot of difference. As we all know, the louder you make a tube amp, the better it sounds.

Overall: 9.2=)

I don't really know what other sections there would be about a poweramp...