Carver PM-1.5 (1980s)
Documentation on the Carver PM-1.5 is thin, and most of what survives is the company's own "Tested. Proven." trade advertising from the mid-1980s. That campaign is still useful, because it establishes the basics: the PM-1.5 was a professional power amplifier built around Carver's Magnetic Field power-supply design, tagged "Low Feedback High Headroom," and it made its professional debut in 1983. At 21 pounds it was a remarkably light contender for its power class, rated at 450 watts per channel.
Carver's ads for the model, such as the one in Mix Magazine (February 1988, p.39), quoted a bench test. It showed 480 watts per channel into 8-ohm loads with both channels driven, at the rated distortion of 0.5%, and 470 watts at 20 Hz - both slightly above the claimed 450. The same ad said the amplifier had been "on the road" since its 1983 debut, which points to professional touring use.
Beyond those figures, the record is sparse. No original price, dimensions or service literature appears to have survived in the archive.
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