FYI, here's a link to a Stereophile article which discusses an agreement (2/8/99) made between Bob Carver and Carver Corp., and a possible merger with Sunfire. They also say that they will re-vamp the whole Carver line with new technologies, which probably means that these speakers won't be a part of the line-up (i.e. reducing the chance of getting replacement parts and or tech help?)
http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?374

BTW, glad to hear that alot of people have been able to fix the mis-wired right-center speaker. I have to give credit where it's due though; Someone else did most of the legwork for the wire switch fix. (thanks Pingu1)

Alot of people are commenting about the bad quality. I guess I would not be surprised that quality would drop after the company reduces its workforce from 84 to 26 people or less. Could've been anyone (engineers, accountants, VP's, janitors?) putting our speakers together just to produce product and revenue. Hopefully they are just assembly errors that are easy to fix (like the wire switch) and that incoming components are still of good quality.

Regarding the hum, some units definitely hum louder than others. The one I had before I exchanged it, was much more noticable (annoying) from across the room than the one I have now. Question: Is there anybody out there up on power supply and amplifier circuits that could tell us what the two potentiometers on the bottom circuit board (board marked "linear") are for? Any chance that they are part of some gain or tuning circuit that wasn't adjusted properly at the factory and could possibly be contributing to the hum? (Mine is acceptable now so I don't really want to play with it.) Just a thought, if anyone has one with bad hum and want's to investigate. Otherwise, the previous posters' suggestions about moving the power transformer or re-locating the crossover, sound like good ideas.

Still 4 stars, for the somewhat fixable quality concerns and slightly flat and less bright sound (personal pref.) during music. I would give it a 5 for Home Theater sound, though.

Just wanted to get my two cents in on this deal. I latched onto a kind person at Costco by phone who canvased their nationwide inventory of stores. Apparently their aren't many systems left (Audiophiles in Bose, Montana still have hope!). I found a floor model located outside of Burlington, Vt, a mere 220 miles away. I live for these kind of deals, so off I went yesterday and nine hours later had them at home. Added bonus? The floor models were marked down to $549! This store has been getting calls from as far away as New Jersey with pleadings to ship them but, cash & carry only.
I've only plugged in the center so far and heard the hum, but if this as as loud as it gets I'm not too worried. My old 120w Carver reciever was noisier than this.

I can't add any more to the discussion that hasn't already been said. I'll just put in my vote for the system being an excellent buy and urge others who want to save at least $1K to make the effort and seek out the remaing units.

I lost my review I submitted on 2/6. I hope this may reset my cookies.

just purchased the 5.2 system from circuit city (floor model) and am quite happy with the performance. wondering if someone would mind providing me with a copy of the manual/specs/papers that came with the system. any information would be greatly appreciated.

I had previously entered a review of these speakers as a 3, with one of the caveats being that I had a problem with one of the drivers in the left main speaker, and that tech support was non-responsive. Wanted to update my review now that all problems have been resolved.
Everett Audio (the folks that you're referred to by the recording on Carver's phone line) refused to honor my warranty, but they did point me to a company in CA that sold/manufactured/had-some-relationship-with Carver drivers for these speakers. This company also refused to honor any warranties, but offered to sell me the part I needed for an extremely reasonable amount of money ($10). The speakers now sound fantastic. (They'd get a five, but I'm still deducting a star for lousy of quality control).

good bass, balanced

placement constraints, quality, lack of support

Excellent product for home theatre.