Compared to the amps I've previously owned, the Carvin whoops them all, in terms of tone, power, and portability. I've read other reviews on this site about Carvins. I don't know what to say....I lucked out? This amp is almost perfect. I can get a lot of tones out of it, its loud enough to compete with two half stacks (well...almost. One stack has 220 watts going into it, the other has 120. They stay at about half volume, I stay at 3/4), and its also fairly easy to transport. This is my only amp, I weigh 150 lbs, and live on the third floor of an apartment building with no elevator, so this is about as much amp as I can haul around by myself.

The construction seems decent enough. There's a heavy duty grill on the front, definately a step up from regular cloth. Metal corner covers. One main handle on the top of the cab. Closed back with about a 2" inch cut out for the ampflier to sit in. One thing I do not understand about the design is why there's a depression in the part of the cab right above where the amplifier section sits. If you go to carvin.com and check out the picture (its a little hard to see because of the angle...the right side shows it better) hopefully you'll see what I mean (also, my amp is an older version, as it does not have the two white and pink inputs (?) on the left hand side of amp above the input jack. I'm guessing they moved the effects loop to the front of the amp). Above and below the amp are two strips going across, but the top one has about a 1" depression in it. Why they made it like this makes no sense to me, as it exposes the knobs to being clipped and pulled off and/or bent (like from loading it in and out of the trunk of a car). The only thing I can figure out is that they thought it would be slightly easier to adjust the knobs while standing if there was a cutout (big friggin deal).

Sound could be considered somewhat hi-fi I guess. The three on/off buttons for lo, mid, hi seem kind of retorical. Why not just give the parametric section more power? They are handy, though, if you're playing and need a quick boost or cut, as its way easier to punch one of them with a toe or finger (I usually play barefoot) then having to stop playing and turn a knob. The sweepable mid is pretty cool. The compressor works nicely enough. The noise gate is ok, but could stand to be a little less touchy. Unless you get it exactly right, it'll cut off your sound (especially if you like to play anything with subtle fingerstyle).

Its fairly crisp and punchy up to about 6 on the volume knob. It gets the job done and I think the sound is comparable to SWR's workingman's series amps. Right around the 7-8 range of the volume (differs depending how much low eq you've got dialed in), the amp starts getting some overdrive in it, which sounds cool if that's what you're after (sounds good for picking), but sucks if you're not (like for slap).

For reliability, so far I have had no problems with this amp. While it hasn't gone on tour or anything like that, it has held up to being lugged back and forth to a bunch of practice sessions over the course of about 2 1/2 - 3 years (which seems to be a worthy achievement considering some of the other carvin reviews).

Overall I've been very happy with this amp. It does its job well. While its more or less just a practice amp, its got enough power to jam with a heavy metal band. It has a lot of features (for this price range), 100 watts of power @ 8 ohms (unfortunately it cannot handle 4 ohms), and a 15" speaker as well, all for around 320$ (that's with shipping).

I haven't had to deal with carvin for anything yet...so I have nothing to offer about their customer support.

Construction	90%
(the metal grill is a nice touch, duratuff not good if you own pets..but on th
e other hand is unscratchable)
Clarity	75%
(sounds very good up till 6...then it starts getting grungy (which can sometim
es be a good thing!))
Versatility	85%
(the eq has got a lot of power)
Volume	90%
(the drummer tells me to turn down every once and awhile)
Portability	90%
(its a lot lighter than the crate was)
Value	95%
(very well rounded package )
Overall	90%
(its been a great amp to me thus far)