Carvin gear for playing out - any good?

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pchorman

pchorman

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I'm looking for a simple and inexpensive 6-8 channel, 200-400 W powered mixer with speakers for a new band to play some small to average sized clubs around town. I see that Carvin gear is very affordable, but I have no familiarity or experience with their products. Can anyone share their opinions on Carvin equipment quality?

Thanks much
 
I have no experience with their gear, but i can say that there are a couple of talented electric bass players that i work with who use some of the Carvin bass preamp/amp and speaker cabinets in their live rigs. They seem to really like them.

Before you buy one of their mixers, I would try to find out how "road-proof" they are, though. Can they stand up to the rigors of being tossed around? (I don't know the answer, just asking...)
 
Yo Man of P-Coors:]

Get Carvin on line and get their catalog. Also, get Yorkville on line and get their broshures. Yorkville ads state that they really guarantee their products -- kind of the old Samsonite commercial where they drop a suitcase from 55k feet and it bounces unharmed.

I have bought Carvin 1/4 cables and a stereo cable and they are all right -- not up there with Monster, Mogami -- but they work fine.

Besides the Yorkville great YSM-1 monitors, Yorkville makes a gaggle of gear, mixers, speakers, etc.

Suggest you check them out.

Green Hornet:D :p :p :p :p :cool: :cool:
 
If Carvin's electronics are anywhere near as well-made as their guitars, they should be at least twice the price. I bought one of their 6-string fretless basses about 6 months ago, and it is amazing. Fit, finish, playability, tone, balance, everything.

I have a friend who has one of their older 8 bus mixers, but he's kept it in his studio as far as I know, so no "roadworthy" info.

Also played with a guy that had a Carvin Bass rig, sounded great, but was too new for a longevity report.

This bit of non-helpful information brought to you by... Steve
 
I've used 2 different Carvin mixers and they were both pretty road worthy. The faders on the big one weren't as smooth as more pricey mixers. I'd consider Carvin and Peavey in the same league. The little 12 channel was par with a mackie 1202. Pre's sounded different, but were still good. Just as bullet proof.

I'll 2nd the Carvin quality in their guitars. I played a friend's semi-hallow electric/acoustic and it kicked ass. I was looking through some of my old guitar mags and saw a review on one of their neck through body guitars. 5 stars no questions asked. ebay, here I come baby!
 
I owned a Carvin X100b 100 watt head and Carvin 412 cab to go with and I feel that I had a quality product. The only reason I got rid of it was because I needed to downsize. I would not hesitate to purchase another one if the need arose.
 
Carvin makes good stuff. Well made cabinets too.

One thing to consider, Yamaha just redesigned their powered mixers to look more like Mackies and the old wooden cabinets with the same electronics are being sold at blowout prices.
 
1981, bought a Carvin DC-200 KOA. Still have it, Awesome! :)
1981, bought a Carvin X-100 amp. Still have it, Awesome! :)
1995, bought a Carvin Valvemaster amp. Blew resistors, pots cracked. Selling it, SUCKS! :mad:
1997, bought a Carvin Cyclops bass amp, 1/4" input plug is fucken plastic!! Epoxied the bitch, still have it. :confused:

To summarize, the instument quality is good.
But they are definately not what the used to be as far as "quality components" in their amps.
 
pchorman said:
I'm looking for a simple and inexpensive 6-8 channel, 200-400 W powered mixer with speakers for a new band to play some small to average sized clubs around town.
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Is that total or per channel? Either way dont consider using a PA with less than 500W per channel @8ohms if you are doing anything bigger than acoustic coffee house gigs.
 
Is that total or per channel? Either way dont consider using a PA with less than 500W per channel @8ohms if you are doing anything bigger
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Tex: I'm surprised you say that. My other 5-piece rock band gigged all around Boston over the last year with just a Yamaha EMX 640 usually in the Main / Monitor configuration (200W per channel), and I don't think we've ever been underpowered. Now that band has one powerful lead singer's voice - he easily overmodulates equipment - which might partly explain. I should also mention that the PA is used strictly for vocals, so that's where all the power is going. This might explain the rest. But the new band for which a Carvin PA is under consideration has a quieter female voice up front which I was hoping a similar wattage rig would support.

By small/medium sized clubs I mean your typical Boston pub/bar with a couple hundred drunkards.

Thanks, everyone, for the inputs provided. What sized PA's do you all typically use? (probably should be a new post)
 
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pchorman said:
I should also mention that the PA is used strictly for vocals, so that's where all the power is going. This might explain the rest. But the new band for which a Carvin PA is under consideration has a quieter female voice up front which I was hoping a similar wattage rig would support.

By small/medium sized clubs I mean your typical Boston pub/bar with a couple hundred drunkards.

Thanks, everyone, for the inputs provided. What sized PA's do you all typically use? (probably should be a new post)
Click to expand...
Okay, for vocals that's not so bad. Once you start putting drums or bass through a PA it sucks up your power pretty fast.

Either way I would recomend a seperate mixer and amp. That way you can upgrade or add to it much easier. If you got a stereo 500W amp you could always bridge it and rent another one for bigger gigs.
 
Ran Carvin Speakers on my club PA - loved them. Really good value for money.

foo
 
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