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Pre for the Crown

C

crowzero

Member
Thanks for so much information from audiokarma members, i finally bought the Crown xls 802 to power my Cerwin Vega xls215 speaker.

Currently, i 'm using the yamaha rxv1800 av receiver pre-out to connect the Crown. I read some reviews about using a lone preamp unit will improve the sound more.

Again i'm gonna need help for what model of preamp to consider. I don't like using mixer coz i hate their design(looks complicated with too much control) and my budget is around $400 to $800.
 
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Crown SL-2/PSL-2

They tend to go for $400 to $500 on the famous auction site. Occasionally, you might snag one for a little less. There are those who have found one locally via CL for much less, but the going rate on the open market is pretty consistent on these.

BTW, the major differences between a SL-2 and a PSL-2 are that the PSL-2 is only available in the charcoal color, whereas the SL-2 was also available in silver. Also, there is a designated input on the PSL-2 for "CD". I believe it is marked as an additional "AUX" input on the SL-2.
 
crowzero said:
Thanks for so much information from audiokarma members, i finally bought the Crown xls 802 to power my Cerwin Vega xls215 speaker.

Currently, i 'm using the yamaha rxv1800 av receiver pre-out to connect the Crown. I read some reviews about using a lone preamp unit will improve the sound more.

Again i'm gonna need help for what model of preamp to consider. I don't like using mixer coz i hate their design(looks complicated with too much control) and my budget is around $400 to $800.
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Pretty much any standalone preamp will work. There's a ton of them out there in that price range. While it's not necessary, I'd probably look for one that has balanced outputs. For example, I grabbed a Forte Model 44 that has balanced outputs for way under the low end of your budget not long ago. It's a great sounding unit.
 
Buy a Behringer mixer with digital sound effects and, with the Crown, you have a small PA system with multiple inputs and tons of EQ. The Crown XLS-802 does multi-duty in my rig(s) as a sub amp, loud mains if I want, or a bass guitar rig that will knock your head off. That amp has the power to do many things well. I use mine at 4 ohms a side and get 800 watts x 2! I love it.
 
whoaru99 said:
Pretty much any standalone preamp will work. There's a ton of them out there in that price range. While it's not necessary, I'd probably look for one that has balanced outputs. For example, I grabbed a Forte Model 44 that has balanced outputs for way under the low end of your budget not long ago. It's a great sounding unit.
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Well that was a very positive perception but i do highly expect it will have some impact of improvement from my current set up.
Thanks again and i will keep researching throughout the process of going to buy.
Anymore suggestion will be great!
 
Well Santa brung me a QSC GX5, when hooking it up I bypassed my HK receiver and just used my Yaqin tube pre with a tt and cdp as a source (unbalanced). I wanted to see if taking the HK out of the chain made any difference, it did not.
 
eteller said:
Well Santa brung me a QSC GX5, when hooking it up I bypassed my HK receiver and just used my Yaqin tube pre with a tt and cdp as a source (unbalanced). I wanted to see if taking the HK out of the chain made any difference, it did not.
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Heard that Yaqin is a chinese product, did it sound really good or up to the cost?
And if you hook your QSC GX5 pa straight through the pre out of your HK receiver, how much different can you detect from using the Yaqin tube pre + QSC?
 
I needed the Yaqin for a phono pre and as a bonus it has another set of inputs. I wanted to try tubes, so it replaced a NAD 114 pre. The Yaqin added a lot of depth and warmth compared to the sterile sounding NAD. Bypassing the Yaqin and just using my CDP through the HK to the QSC sounds fine, but the tubes on the Yaqin are cheap JJ's on the CDP side. I have decent NOS RCA's on the TT side. I hardly ever listen to CD's. As far as the Yaqin goes I love it, and would like a Yaqin tube amp for a small dining room system in the future. It's a funky design, but super well built. Throw in some NOS tubes and I'd put it up against something 5x the price.
 
whoaru99 said:
While it's not necessary, I'd probably look for one that has balanced outputs.
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I agree. I've got a pair of K2's. They have XLR inputs. My preamp is all RCA. I then have an active crossover and it's all XLR.

I don't understand much about matching impedance and those terms... all I know is I have some hum issues with my preamps (I have two that I swap out every now & then) so I ended up getting an Art Cleanbox. This little gizmo is essentially a transformer that converts RCA to XLR in one direction as well as provisions for converting XLR to RCA in the other direction.

It has some issues with low signal rolloff or something like that (It has a part that can be upgraded to increase the bass response through it).

I'd like to get rid of all this mix/match and the only real way to do that is dump my preamps and get another with XLR outputs.
 
Coytee said:
I agree. I've got a pair of K2's. They have XLR inputs. My preamp is all RCA. I then have an active crossover and it's all XLR.

I don't understand much about matching impedance and those terms... all I know is I have some hum issues with my preamps (I have two that I swap out every now & then) so I ended up getting an Art Cleanbox. This little gizmo is essentially a transformer that converts RCA to XLR in one direction as well as provisions for converting XLR to RCA in the other direction.

It has some issues with low signal rolloff or something like that (It has a part that can be upgraded to increase the bass response through it).

I'd like to get rid of all this mix/match and the only real way to do that is dump my preamps and get another with XLR outputs.
Click to expand...

I myself don't know much about impedence, will there be a problem by just using a rca to xlr interconnect or adapters without crossing electronics? Like these:
 

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^^^^^

From the pre-outs of a standalone preamp, adapters or cables generally work fine. Also, for amps that have 1/4" TRS/balanced inputs you could instead use RCA > 1/4" TS/mono adapters instead of the RCA > XLR adapters. The RCA > 1/4" TS/mono adapters usually cost much less.

OTOH, trying to use pre outs from a receiver usually works too, but sometimes it seems the pre-outs of a receiver don't have enough cojones to drive a pro amp to full output.
 
Asking for your opinion whoaru99, do you think that using preamp with balanced output will drive the power amp with balanced input louder/finer than vice versa?
If either way is fine, i wish to identfy the greater one. thanks!
 
In terms of volume it shouldn't matter if both are capable to supply what the amp needs for input voltage to produce full output.
 
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