Who No Crown Equipment?

[Scorpion8]

My local pawn shop has a Crown CD player. Looks decent. IIRC from my early 80's, Crown was pretty well regarded and expensive gear. Yet you never see any here, or very little. Why no love for Crown? What ever happened to them?

 

[maxkelley]

I think Crown is best known for their power amps being workhorses.. I never knew they made anything really but that.

 

[dread31]

Crown did, and still makes excellent equipment. Although they stick to professional type gear these days. Mostly high power amplifiers.

In reference to the cd player you mention; I was totally unaware that they ever made one. Could be you have something unique there.

Dave

 

[willyrover]

Is it a black plastic player with CROWN silkscreened in yellow/gold?

I think I have seen a few of these around but I never paid attention. They really looked like BPC...along the same lines as Fisher "Studio Standard" BPC.

 

[dread31]

What is "BPC"?

Dave

 

[whell]

I know folks who swear by the D series (D 75 or D 150) Crown amps for their main systems in their home, even though these amps were designed for pro applications.

 

[dread31]

I had a girlfriend (Yes, that's right, a girlfreind who was into audio.) who had a D 150. This was coupled to a Hafler pre-amp and Phase Tech speakers. I lent her my Luxman TT (Grado cart.) for a source. Nice little system. I miss it.
The system, not the psychotic woman.

Dave

 

[Scorpion8]

Is it a black plastic player with CROWN silkscreened in yellow/gold?

Yea, looks like a spinoff of a Sherwood BPC, but is just like you described. Perhaps rebadged from some other OEM?

 

[imready]

i always wanted some crown or ohase linear equipment. those two brands always had that well built look to me.hope some day i come across some!

 

[Fedallah]

What is "BPC"?

BPC = Black Plastic Crap. A blanket term used for shoddily designed and constructed eighties audio gear, especially in comparison to that which was built in the preceding decade. Of course, not all crap is black, and not all black gear is crap, or plastic. But one glance at a pawnshop or thrift-store shelf should confirm the statistical validity of the definition.

 

[SPL db]

At one point, the Crown name was put on some rebadged BPC pieces...

To the best of my knowledge, the real Crown only made amps and preamps.

Scott

 

[grateful]

There was crown of japan. Total junk. Crown did make one cd player metal front nice quality.

 

[Kerb]

Saw a Crown amp in a pawn shop the other day. Ask the girl how much. It was sold:sigh:

 

[Scorpion8]

So if the amps are such well-regarded gear, how come we don't see much traffic about them on AK?

 

[powerman]

The CD player is not from Crown in the USA. Never seen or heard that they made 1. They did make quite a few excellent audio pieces too. Like the DL2
preamp FM1 tuner VX2A electronic Xover and also test equipment. Also some
decent speakers in their day.

 

[SPL db]

So if the amps are such well-regarded gear, how come we don't see much traffic about them on AK?

Well, there was this thread posted by Pete a while back...

Crown ZR1600

Scott

 

[ValvTubeHead]

So if the amps are such well-regarded gear, how come we don't see much traffic about them on AK?

They've had a fine reputation in the rack oriented world of Pro and PA gear...for the most part; large reliable SS watts at moderate to high prices. I suppose "most" wouldn't regard crown amps as mainstream for hifi applications, however it shouldn't preclude such a notion. AVS forum certainly has some fan activity around current or contemporary Crown offerings...I recently invested in some transistor power to drive passive subs in my new active xo strategy...Crown was an option, but still a little pricey for my frugal taste. Vintage Crown stuff, I'm not familiar with, but have noted its strong presence in PA real-estate since the 80's.

 

[Divotdog]

I have a couple of Crown amps that I picked up last summer at a GW, never hooked them up or even tried them out, heavy buggers though!

 

[Jonesy09]

So if the amps are such well-regarded gear, how come we don't see much traffic about them on AK?

Well I haven't been around here long enough to give a fully qualified answer buy I can take a guess.....

Using pro gear in a home system seems to have some issues that consumer gear does not. I'm not saying they are negative issues, but considerations that need to be made none the less. Example....

A friend of mine has his theater room rigged with all Peavy and Carver pro amps. He uses a line level shifter to get the line signal coming from the preamp up to where pro amps need it, which I think is something like another 4 or 6 db. Now even he admits this isn't absolutely necessary but to do it properly he says it should be done. It requires double the number of cables, which can get cumbersome and expensive.

There are also ground loop and fan noise issues. His Carvers seem particularly sensitve to ground loop and he needs to take preventative measures. Most pro amps are also fan cooled which can be a background noise issue. Add in the sheer weight of some of these units along with the fact that alot of them need to be rack mounted and you have a long list of considerations that not everyone may want to deal with.

Now the upside is mountains of clean power. If you're a wattage junkie this may be the ticket. My example-buddy has somewhere around 5k to 6k watts for a 7.1 speaker setup with bass shakers. Not eveyone's cup of tea but I'll tell ya, listening to Mushroomhead through his Paradigm v3 setup (100's/20's/560) with the massive SVS B4 and bass shakers on those amps will definately blow your panties into your carck.....:guitar:

 

[70salesguy]

Crown CD player

There are 2 Crown companies.

Crown of Japan makes BPC. This Cd player would be one of theirs. Avoid like plague.

Crown of America. Elkhart Indiana.

Crown made some equipment oriented to the high dollar and professional market in the 60s, 70s and early 80s.

I have the last of the equipment that Crown made intended for home/pro use in terms of amplifiers, tuner and power amps.

Crown PSL-2, PFM-3 and PS-400.

IMHO, excellent equipment. Sounds wonderful when coupled with JBL L100 or 4311/4312 speakers.

Check out these two sites :

www.crownaudio.com/history.htm
www.crownaudio.com/crntime.htm