Price Paid:  $60.00 from Pawn Shop

Summary:
I am a mobile DJ as a hobby. I was doing a show using this cute little amp for the monitor.

I picked the amp up at a pawn shop for very little; I don't think the owner of the shop knew what it was. I had seen the Carver name at audiophile shops but knew nothing about them. I was amazed by the sound when I tested it on some 15 inch speakers. It worked flawlessly.

At a show I was running a Crown CE2000 when of all things, it got lit on fire by a mishap by a fire dancer. Being that I only DJ as a hobby, I did not have a full power backup amplifier, so the Carver ended up being the main amp being used.

At 100 watts output I was worried that it would be anemic sounding, but I was pleasantly surprized. The sound was not as loud as one might like for a night of dancing, it was loud enough to have fun. Pushed to its limits, this amp also put out clear sound. This was in a 4000 square foot club.

Since then I have begun to use it as the amplifier for some Paradigm bookshelf speakers attached to my computer, something it is doing equally well.

This amp is small, light, durable, and puts out as good of sound as my ears can discern. The output level needles are easy to read and attractive, there are separate attenuators for left and right, and it has both an input and an output section making it useful for chaining it with other amps.

Honestly, I cannot see much to say against it. New I would have gladly paid perhaps US$300 for it. If you find one of these on Ebay or in a shop for below $200, give it a look. I am rather satisfied and am sold on teh brand name.

Strengths:
Small size, great sound, nice plug arrangement.

Weaknesses:
Umm... Well, the attenuator knobs could have a better "feel" to them. They seem a little sticky, and are rather small knobs. Then again, you shouldnt be needing to adjust these much if your source is separately attenuated.

Similar Products Used:
SONY TA-N55ES

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
I have two 100 watts stereo/280 bridged Tfm - 15 Cb's.I run them bridged.They are vary musical.Most important is that they are silent.Only the music comes through.I have had to have one fixed, bad relay and ground.Overall a solid well built amp.Well worth the $$ for the used ones.I got the secound one for $ 170.00 on E- Bay.

Strengths:
Solid counstruction. Great sound stage and depth. 280 watts in bridged mode.High current-High Voltage.

Weaknesses:
Some probs with relay& ground. Though amp is 9 years old.

Similar Products Used:
Caver CT-24 PreAmp.

Price Paid:  $239.00 from Ebay

Summary:
very good amp in it's class. sounds beter then many audiophil hi-end amp. good value for money.good bild.recomended.

Strengths:
smooth sound.

Price Paid:  $300.00 from on ebay

Summary:
I purchased my Carver TFM-15cb to drive a pair of Infinity RSIIBs. I had tried quite a few amplifiers before and because of the impedance range of the speakers (1.6 to 14 ohms)I had to contend with audiable distortion or other amps simply overheating and shuting down. 1 Toshiba died a fiery, smokey death. Until I tried the Carver, the best results were with tube amplification. I agree with other reviews that the amps run hot, and I found this to be the case at all output levels. I purchased a second Carver TFM-15cb to take advantage of the bi-amp option of the Infinity speakers and to clean up any possible intermodulation distortion caused by the odd load they presented throughout their frequency range. I was amazed at the smooth, clean frequency response and high headroom the Carvers had. I've run them for hours at a time at 25-75WPC and never have they shut down or develop any audiable distortion despite getting pretty hot. I do have plenty of air circulation for these amps but if you're housing them in a confined space, add a fan and you shouldn't have any problems. If you're looking for decent, clean power at a cheap price, the TFM-15cb is the way to go.

Strengths:
Great performance at a bargain price. Good frequency response.

Weaknesses:
Meter lamps burn out although LED replacements are available on ebay.

Price Paid:  $500.00

Summary:
The amp worked well powering my smaller speakers, I used it this way for years powering my rear channel speaks. Than one day I wanted to see how well it would do with my Infinity Kappa 8.0's. These speakers are known to require gobs of current due to the woofers dipping below 1 ohm at low freqs. Needless to say the amp went up in a puff of smoke very quickly. The circuit breaker protection does not act fast enough to save the amp. I've powered the kappa's with 2 adcom gfa 545II amps rated at the same 100watts per channel without failure, I've blown hundreds of current limiting fuses but this at least protects the amp.

Strengths:
I guess the dials on the front

Weaknesses:
Do not try to power a big load
internal protection not up to the task.

Similar Products Used:
Adcom GFA-545II, GFA-555II, Aragon 8008BB, Acurus A200. Carver tfm-1090