Carvin CX1272

I bought this unit in 2000, I got it based on price, and for what it would do effect's and it's Stereo. I was going to get a Mackie but it didn't have the features the Carvin had, and was way more money.
I have used it a lot for gigs and practice.

The sound is great also has great effects, and the power is way enough

When I first got it, it worked for a while and a capasitor burnd out.
I had to send it back at my expence. I was with out for a while. After I got it back it worked great for years till last weekend during band practice 3/4/06 It made a humming noice and the the smoke started to come out the back, I pulled the power it stopped smoking. My trust is going quickly on this unit.

I have delt with customer support twice. The first time was OK becase it was under warranty. This last time they told me they haven't any way to fix it now, and if I send it back to them they will give me 20% off a RX1200S, I have only had this unit for 5 years. There is a quality issue with this unit, and I have to pay for shipping both ways. I would do this but I'm a little gun shy now. What if I have the same problem with the next unit. After one year your screwed. I'm getting a Mackie.

Im Very disappointed with Carvin not ponying up that there is a problem with the unit and making the customer happy about it. Cut and dry policy is not going to sell more units that now I can't trust. I was going to get a Bass AMP from them, but I think I will look around now to see whats more reliable. Trast is everything when your playing for money in front of people.

Loads of Features, which is what attracted me to it. I like the usability of the on board effects, and the selectivity and sensitivity of the mixer overall....when it worked!

I used it exactly twice..... then it took a small jolt, ruptured the fan housing, which incdently supports the PA board on the back panel, and ever since that was replaced it decided to cut out.

When it worked it was great for practice and the small pub gig... I say gig as it only gigged once.

Hard to say because I have traced teh faults to the Volume pot, and teh Main/monitor switch , and a faulty AUX send socket, however Carvin no longer support this amp, and I cannot get them to release the spares...

I would love to get my #275.00 worth of investment back, but looks as though I'll have to write it off as poor quality American trash workmanship.

Tried to get the company via the service department to support it, but not interested, asked for a replacement but no luck there either.

I thought I had done my homework and was investing in a dependable bit of gear. Really annoyed as it used all of my savings to buy this, and i'm left with a worthless pile of rubbish, which cost almost #300...

Well first off the Effects arent very percise and you cant very the ms time of delays or reverbs accuratley to do an effeciant sound in a unbalanced bad acoustic room. I have the one with the speakers. The speakers seem to be fairly decent, Nothing compared to my EAW's :) If your wondering the sound of these speakers think BOXY. The speakers can be at times a little muffled even with substantial EQ high boosts. The mics are decent not your SM58's! The Phantom Power seems to be a little sluggish in booting up and in providing power through the lines.. At least for a direct box. The Amp Does have enough power for what I have used it yet for. I've decided stop using the speakers it came with and hook up the mains to my eaw's this works quite well but I wouldnt suggest running it at 2ohms.

Sound is Ok Effects arent percise enough EQ is very sufficiant.

As of the time im writing this it has never broken or overheated on me. I havent used it much, just at times when I needed to reinforce speech. I will be puting it to the test this weekend and using it for backing a small band.

Havent Encountered It. Although the online manuels help for those who misplace them :)

It's A Decent combo mixer there all about the same here on the market. Its not your pro-mixer so dont look for all the features you would have on a Mackie or Yamaha. The Power amp is ok although Ive hered stories of overheating. If you want buy it but I dont suggest either way.

Followup to my earlier report on this mixer:

When I got mine, channel 7 was hosed, but with 12 channels to choose from, I wasn't aware of this until the warranty had expired. After using it for about 2 years, channel 2 got hosed up too, then during practice, I plugged a mic into it and the whole thing started smoking. I was really pissed about this.

I called Carvin to explain the problem and was informed that Carvin has a flat fee for fixing the frontend of this unit of $150. I sent it in and got it back about 6 weeks later - I guess they're really backed up in the reapir bay. Everyone I talked to at Carvin was helpful and curtious. The repair tech informed me that on the 1272's that there is a problem with the op amps on the mixer board and once one of them goes, the rest are sure to follow.

When I got my unit back, all channels were in proper working order, and the hiss I noted in stereo mode in my earlier review of the unit was gone - well, it was not any worse than what was coming through in mono.

It's not a bad unit when it's working, but it really should have a gain control for the input. If (when?) mine breaks (again), I don't think I'll replace it with another 1272, or even the new 1200W model, but go for a separate mixer board and real FOH amp system.

This mixer has some decent features for small gigs and stuff, but a couple of things are missing. 1. There is no gain control for each channel, i've found that to be a problem. Especially the kick drum will clip, and you have to keep it at very low volumes.
2.It automatically cuts the effects to the monitors by 1/2 (That's what Carvin told me) It would be nice to have control over this.
Also let me add one...The cooling is terrible for this thing, I HAVE to I mean HAVE to keep an external fan blowing on high all night long directly on the back, or it WILL shut down, usuall right in the middle of a song.

Like the other reviews I read........This is a nice sounding unit when it is working. The dig effects are nice, and the eq's have a range full enough to adjust anything. Too bad the reliability sucks, because for small gigs, and quick setup you can't beat it.

Sucks.......
It's a good thing that Carvin is easy to deal with ,or I would be in a world of you know what.... After I had it for about 6 months it started cutting out in the middle of our shows, NOT going into protect mode, I mean cutting out altogether, according to CArvin one of the insert switches was defective. I sent it back to Carvin to be repaired, they told me 10 days, and they had it for over a month, I'm still pissed about that, but anyway.... I finally got it back, and yep you guessed it, You work it at all, and it overheats and shuts down. Carvin is going to upgrade me to a new pa1200 at no charge (Hmm), i guess it has 3 amps 333watts/pc, and better control over the effects. They have a big problem with the 1272's overheating. The guy at carvin said they are going to quit making them altogether. If you have one don't put a 2ohm load on the amp's even though you are supposed to be able to. It will heat up, and shut you down.
This thing is crap, and CArvin knows it.

This is the one area I have to say Kudos to Carvin for. Except for taking so long to repair it the first time. They are upgrading me at no charge to a better unit.......at least I hope it is. We'll see.

I'm gonna give this new unit a try, but if it has the same problems, I'm getting my dinero back.....I definitely would not buy another CX1272.

since this is a mixer, naturally it's pretty versatile.
the features are what caused me to buy it (plus it was cheap)

It sounds great when it's not on fire. plenty of power, when combined with apair of 15 inch/big tweeter speakers

I have only had this unit for three weeks including the week of down time while carvin sent me another one to replace the first one that smoked. The second one smoked channel two as we were preparing to practice for a gig the next day. there is a serious quality issue going down here. to their credit they deal with returns nicely. Unfortunately I'm totally spooked now.

one year warranty. apparently you'll need it.

I'm very disappointed that I can't use this thing. if I could trust it, I'd love it. like I said before, it's great when it's not on fire.

12 Channel powered mixer. I bought it as a package with a pair of Carvin 1584 speakers and two CM50 mics to replace the home stereo setup I was using for playing through a Digitech GSP-5 in stereo mode. I wanted the extra channels for mics and a Boss Dr. Rythm.

This amp is loaded with features (it is a mixer afterall). Each input channel has main volume, monitor level, 3 band EQ, pan, effects level. This is not strictly a guitar amp and each channel has a balanced mic input as well as a 1/4" instrument input. The master output has a 9 band EQ that handles L/R in stereo mode or main/monitor in mono mode. There is a very clean onboard effects processor which includes Reverb, Flanger, Echo, and Chorus Reverb that can be used in the same loop with external effects processors. There is also a tape loop for additional input or recording. I use it for practice at home or for small performance venues (<600 people) - it has way more power than I need for home, but really kicks butt for the live performances.

Like I mentioned in the features section, this is not really a guitar amp, so don't expect it to give you any cool tube distortion. It's simply a 12 channel mixer with a 700W output.

There is a noticible amount of hiss in stereo mode which is not present in mono - even with no inputs plugged in. This noise is not so loud that it distorts or comes through during playing, only while no input signal is being received.

With all the channels available to me I didn't realize that one of the channels (ch. 7) was hosed up when I got it and by the time I realized it, the warranty period had passed. I recently used an Ovation bass with active pickups throught it and hosed up a second channel. I haven't called Carvin to see if this is common, but I would have expected it to be more reliable than that - especially since Carvin sells instruments with active electronics on board. Other than that, it has performed flawlessly - meaning that there is no noise in the pots, and the remaining 10 channels are crisp and clean.

Carvin has a number of manuals online in PDF format including one for this amp. I have asked them about features via e-mail and they have been curteous and prompt with their responses.

I've been playing about 15 years, and this is the first seriously powered amp I've owned (I've had some little Gorilla and Randall practice amps before). It was a stereo amp that came with two relaly big speakers (total system cost about $1450) and had enough channels that I could run my stereo effects processor into it as well as a stereo rhythm machine and mics. If it were stolen I would probably replace it with a Carvin C1600 mixer and DCM1000 amp. It's more expensive, and more than I need, but the S/N ratio is supposed to be way better - quiet enough to use it as a mixing board for recording.