I actually purchased the TS-451S theater system from Acoustic Sound designs and It was an awesome expirence. They had no problem price matching and were very easy to work with. I will definately use them again in the near future. The speakers are also great. I have to say Thanks again to Acoustic Sound design.

Ample power, great sound, good lucks

Build Quality, hum's quietly when no audio signal is present.

Well, I bought this guy used off of Ebay. New, it probably
cost around $750. It has sonic holography, which supposedly opens up the room increasing imaging and depth restoring the 3 dimensionality of live performances, but setting
it up requires strategic speaker placement that my room
just doesn't offer to me, so my speakers remain triangulated
and I have yet to try sonic holography. The tuner isn't bad,
the ACCD tuning section that supposedly brings in weaker
stations didn't really seem to do anything, but hey I live in the city. Anyhow, it picked up the frequencies I wanted
just fine. The remote is tiny and just has basic functions for volume, tuning and selecting the various inputs.
I have it powering an old pair of infinity qe (emit tweeter) bookshelf speakers. I used to use an old Technics
receiver, (circa 1970) built like a tank. In the replacment,
I noticed that the bass had more kick and cymbals now
shimmer beautifully, vocals are also clearer throughout the volume range. So, all around it just sounds wonderful and really brought my system together.
However, it was DOA due to several bad solders at the factory that were bound to short the main board eventually.
So, even though it was double boxed with foam when it was shipped, UPS jarred it enough to damage the bad solder points enough so that they needed fixing. Just a note, Carver's authorized repair dealer charges $150 flat rate, plus you have to pay for shipping. I found a local reputable repair store to fix the bad solders for around $115. In the 1990's, Carver began using factories in other countries (Japan) to assemble their units and hence quality went down... hence the bad soldering. Anyhow, I still got a great deal on it and the seller agreed to pay half of the repair cost. In addition, I am confident in longterm reliability. If anyone needs info email me as I have the original manual.

Sound Quality, Construction,

AM tuner, Too many same buttons

I actually own the model 722, which is a previous version of the 732. I bought it (used)for about $100 because I wanted digital tuning and my wife wanted a black face to match our other components. It is a great sounding unit. I needed an amp with a lot of power at 4 ohms (I was driving old AR3a's, which are real power hogs), and this unit delivered nicely.

Some of the nice features are:
(1) Bass, Mid, and Treble tone controls (did you know that a lot of newer units don't have ANY tone controls?).
(2) The Sonic Holography adds a certain "depth" to the music.
(3) I don't have FM reception problems, so can't comment on the ACCD circuitry. But if I ever move to the boondocks, it might help.

I only have two complaints:
(1) the AM reception is terrible-- no matter what I do for an antenna, it's worse than a $5 kid's radio! Fortunately, I don't listen to AM much.
(2) the row of identical small buttons for selecting stations and other functions. I was always pressing the wrong button (especially the "memory" button and screwing up my presets). Finally, I painted the "memory" button red (nail polish), and that seems to have done the trick.

Note: I understand that Carver quality became pretty bad in the early 90's. The company went bankrupt, and has been re-purchased by the original owner. I have heard that the new stuff is dynamite. If you want Carver, I would go for the older or newer models, but I would be a little leary of the mid-90's stuff.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz 2245

Endurance, looks, sound quality, reliability

No light on the motorized volume control

Here is a product summary from the 1993 Stereo Review Buyers Guide:

HR-732 60-W/ch Receiver
2 channels. Features motor-driven volume control. 6 audio inputs; 3 video inputs; 2 video outputs; headphone jack. 30 AM/FM presets with scan; auto/manual tuning; signal-strength indicator; A/B speaker switching; bass, treble and balance controls; 2 AC outlets; remote control. 60 W x 2 into 8 ohms or 100 W x 2 into 4 ohms from 20-20,000 Hz with 0.09% THD; 120 W x 2 into 2 ohms. S/N 100dBA amp, 80 dBA MM. FM: cap ratio 2.2 dB; AM rej 62 dB; alt-ch sel 65 dB; ch sep 45dB. 19 x 5 1/4 x 15 1/2 in. $500

In 1994 Carver added the HR-742 which looks similar with 80 W/ch, adds pre-out/main-in loops.

Overall, this receiver has been great (5 stars for value). It has been used daily as my AV receiver since 1993. This does not have surround processing (DD or DPL), but does have Carver's Sonic Holography, which adds life to any input source. It has never been in the shop, and has run like a trooper.

Plus, it has those classic Carver good looks -- those rack handles combined with the brushed aluminum and plastic face present a modern look that never ages.

Power, looks.

Radio reception is not very good; the ACCD feature for better reception of weaker signals makes no difference at all.Many buttons which look alike and are put tight together, both in the unit and in the remote control.

(The model is 1993; I don't know why I didn't have the option and had to put 1995)
This is a very good receiver for the price (used). The construction is very solid and very good looking. The display of buttons helps to this but is quite uncomfortable for using. Specially the preset dialing with the memo key so close.
Power is a very strong 60W. They move 3 way speakers very easily.
The bass is deep but quite round. Not very defined.
I like how the volume knob works. There is no distortion in any frequency when volume is changed.
I miss the pre-amp in-out.