Bob Carver, House of Stereo, Wireworld, eXemplar, Wolf and VPI | FLAX 2020

Part-Time Audiophile

Bob Carver is BACK! I’m not really sure he ever left, since his innovative and sometimes controversial products have been sold under different names over the years–Phase Linear, Carver, Sunfire and now The Bob Carver Corporation. Perhaps the next company will just be called Bob. I’ve never had a lot of seat time with Bob Carver designs, but I’ve definitely known plenty of audiophiles who consider them among the best ever created. I also know plenty of audiophiles who think they’re gimmicky. All I know is that I heard an amazing system at FLAX 2020, hosted by Jacksonville dealer House of Stereo, that employed Bob Carver Crimson 350 monoblock amplifiers ($9500/pair), Crimson 275 stereo amplifier ($2750) and the Bob Carver Amazing Line Source speakers ($16,000/pair). Those speakers, which contained a massive array of drivers, were skinny and tall, so much so that it was difficult to take a photo of the entire enclosure. The rest of the system included an eXemplar Audio eXception line stage ($5995), a Wolf Audio Systems Alpha 3 SX server ($9895), a Bel Canto Black EX pre/DAC ($14,000), a “bespoke” VPI Prime turntable ($10,000) and a van den Hul Frog cartridge ($3520), with everything on a […]

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