Bob Carver is back. And we gots the review :) The Cherry 180s are very, very good.

Hello Peter, Tom here. A friend of mine purchased the very first Cherry 180 and that amplifier was definitely a treat to listen to a couple of years back at a yearly audio event I host. While I may not be the biggest fan of the Amazing lineup of speakers, paired up with this amp made my ears positively perk up. In an audiophiles worst acoustic nightmare, none the less. A rare thing happened when we first hooked them up, we played some jazz and all 13 folks in the room didn't speak for quite some time. They just sat there and listened to the music. To me, that speaks volumes.

The one thing I have found with all things concerning Bob is that folks seem to either love him or hate him. There is seemingly not much inbetween the two. Allow me to clarify a bit....I'm talking about the gear he has produced throughout the various companies he has had. If you don't mind, I'd like to educate the folks here about the "real" Bob.

When I first met him, I thought that I would be meeting this high flutin' multi-millionaire that could give a rat's patootie about the general public or anything they had to say. I am pleased to say that I couldn't have been more wrong. He is the most down to Earth person you would ever want to meet. He loves this hobby just as much as we all do and he is just as interested in trying things out and listening to things as we all are. Every time we ask him a question about various systems that he may not know, he all of a sudden turns into this little kid in a candy store. He smiles and says enthusiastically "I don't know, let's find out!" and marches on to go find out. He is nothing but a pleasure to hang out with and his heart is as good as gold.

We were joking with him this past year about how much of an audio nut he is and the conversation quickly turned to what he has in his kitchen cabinets. I'm admittedly chuckling as I type this. A friend of mine was in his kitchen and asked for a glass of water but didn't know where the glasses were [Bob was preoccupied with audio stuff at the time...go figure], so he just opened a cabinet. Tubes. Opened another one, tubes....and another, you guessed it. More tubes. I'd swear the man eats, sleeps and drinks audio and I would go so far as to say that he probably has forgotten more about audio in his sleep than most of the general public would in a lifetime.

I have had so much fun with him over the years I have been blessed with knowing him behind the scenes of his products. I always look forward to more time with him. We are on opposite coasts but I'll take what little time I can get with him. He's like the friend you have known your entire life whenever we get together and many I have met through time also feel the same way. Oh, one more thing. If anybody ever meets him for the first time, don't call him "Mr. Carver". He prefers to be called just plain ol' Bob.

This last September, I had the honor to stand beside Bob and assist him in teaching folks how to build a small 20 watt tube amp designed by him. I think we ended up building 47 of the amplifiers in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina that week. These tube amplifiers smoked [a rarely used term by me] a Cary amplifier used in both pentode and triode mode, costing multiple times more. Soon, these amplifiers will be offered through his website along with a new line array speaker he and another friend of mine, Farinelli, Leslie and others have been working on for years. He is even planning a tubed crossover for them and I look forward to what they have in store for us.

I can tell you this. He is having the time of his life! No big corporation this time. Just Bob being Bob and having the most fun doing what it is he does best. Getting back to his roots and building tube amplifiers.

Oh and by the way, Peter...wait until you roll some tubes in that bad boy.

Phelonious Ponk said:

I wonder if, a few years from now, he'll build an inexpensive SS amp that a couple of audiophile journalists won't be able to distinguish from his $7400 tube amp. I mean he is still Bob Carver, right?

Tim

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Hello, Tim. I can say with complete certainty that your scenario will not be the case. Bob is simply enjoying life to the fullest and getting back to his roots.

That being tubes. Enjoy the music.

Tom

Phelonious Ponk said:

I'm just enjoying the depth of the irony. We know Carver can make a modest SS amp sound like an expensive tube amp. So why would he choose tubes, with all their expense and vulnerabilities?

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To answer your question, because tubes are his true passion.