Solid State Power Amp Reviews

For the benefit of those Stereophile readers who aren't fully up on industry scuttlebutt, here's the real scoop (or at least as much as I know) about Carver the Man and Carver the Corporation: Bob Carver founded Carver Corporation in the early 1980s and was its CEO for a number of years, eventually taking the company public. About two years ago, he left the Corporation on a year-long sabbatical, and ended up resigning in March 1994. There were suits and countersuits about financial matters, non-competition clauses, and patent rights. These legal issues have now been resolved—see "Manufacturers' Comments," March '95, reprinted below—and Carver Corporation is proceeding with its product development and marketing.

Carver Research, the high-end division of Carver Corporation, is devoted to the "introduction of leading-edge technologies in their most advanced form." According to Carver Research, Bob Carver was the person who came up with the original idea for the Lightstar, but the final product is the result of extensive development by a team headed by VP of Research and Development Jim Croft, an engineer with a long list of credits in audio and electronics design.

Bob Carver has a new company, which has introduced its own amplifier, the Sunfire. The Sunfire is conceptually similar to the Lightstar, but has followed a different path of development. In this review, all references to "Carver" are to the Corporation, not to the Man.—Robert Deutsch