Who No Crown Equipment?

[hammr7]

I've always been impressed by older Crown Gear. I have the 828 RTR, which is the strongest built tape recorder I have ever seen. It is also one of the easiest to service.

I have a pair of D-150s, which in mono mode provide all the power most systems can handle. I also have a C-150A which is a great preamp but is unfortunately not working. I'm hopeful its just a fuse, which is an oddball size (and I've been too lazy to order).

In its day, Crown gear wasn't considered fashionable enough for home audio applications. The company's efforts were instead channeled to handle the rigors of pro use. But the aspects of extremely solid construction are what I find so appealing today. You will never confuse a piece of vintage Crown gear with the cheap, disposable stuff you see too much of today. And Crown components will handle whatever you throw at it more than most home audio gear. Many of their amps were rated for 4 ohm and capable at 2 ohm and lower loads.

 

[tfarney]

You will never confuse a piece of vintage Crown gear with the cheap, disposable stuff you see too much of today. And Crown components will handle whatever you throw at it more than most home audio gear. Many of their amps were rated for 4 ohm and capable at 2 ohm and lower loads.

Yep, I've seen the sound guy just throw another set of speakers at the rack of Crowns without a second thought. I'm not familiar with the Crown stuff built for living room use. That's a new one to me. But I know the pro Crown, vintage and otherwise. Really, the vintage doesn't matter much, as it was built to such high standards. A rack of old, or not so old, Crowns would bring us all perspective; the knowledge that all of our consumer audio was built to be coddled by predictable loads in controlled environments, that the line between silver metal and BPC is so fine as to be hardly worth talking about from that perspective. If it sounds good, enjoy it. But if you're going to set it down heavy in the back of a truck and haul it to the next gig, over and over again for years, it needs to be in another league altogether. My Harman Kardon wouldn't last a month, if it had a chance of stepping up to the task in the first place. And I'm sorry, but neither would your Marantz or Sansui.

It's another world.

Tim

 

[bowtie427ss]

My Harman Kardon wouldn't last a month, if it had a chance of stepping up to the task in the first place. And I'm sorry, but neither would your Marantz or Sansui.

I'd beg to differ, the Marantz power amplifiers, larger ones anyway like the 500 would serve with all due performance and durability in a pro application, as well would the venerable Pioneer Spec 2, add the Phase Linear 400 and 700, Soundcraftsmen RA/MA series, and indeed several others. I'm not really familiar with the Big Sui amplifiers but my WAG would be that they're on par with the aforementioned.

These are all amplifiers that start with very robust power supplies feeding overbuilt amplifier sections with often extra large heat sinks, and the construction HAS to be durable to support the mass of these beasts.

IMO, "most" of the TOTL vintage amplifiers have EVERYTHING in common with a good pro amp and the bonus of a very pretty face.

In the late 70's there was a local band that became quite popular in my area on their reputation for their excellent sound. Their PA mains were 2 pairs of Altec VOTT's biamped with a pair of Spec 2's. Even by today's standards that was one of the best sounding small PA's i've ever heard.

 

[tfarney]

I'd beg to differ, the Marantz power amplifiers, larger ones anyway like the 500 would serve with all due performance and durability in a pro application, as well would the venerable Pioneer Spec 2, add the Phase Linear 400 and 700, Soundcraftsmen RA/MA series, and indeed several others.

Perhaps. But I've played a lot of venues, through a lot of systems, both road and house, and while I've seen the occasional Phase Linears, I can't recall having ever seen a Marantz or Pioneer in a pro soundman's rack. Besides, it's not so much a matter of if they could do the job, but could they hold up to it. It is feasible, I suppose, to build a PA system around B & Ws, but take them on the road and those pretty bullet tweeters would be broken off in no time. And hook one pair too many of them up to your Marantz and it might fall short pretty fast. I wouldn't want to test the theory with someone's pretty home audio equipment, at any rate.

Tim

 

[vincei]

Crown amps are amazing units, very high current, brute powerhouses. IIRC there was a Crown reference amp, many years ago, that sold for 10k and had a damping factor of 20k, it was designed for hi end amplications.

 

[whoaru99]

Crown amps are amazing units, very high current, brute powerhouses. IIRC there was a Crown reference amp, many years ago, that sold for 10k and had a damping factor of 20k, it was designed for hi end amplications.

Crown Macro Reference or Studio Reference amps did have incredible damping factor specs, but I don't believe they were $10K.

If one keeps a keen eye out, you can sometimes find a clean example for $1000 - $1500. They were discontinued by Crown a while back.

 

[grateful]

Tfarney is correct, The crown Macrotech is in a whole different league with respect to bullet-proof performance. A Macrotech will drive a 1 ohm load all day and produce many KW of clean power. They often are used to drive shaker tables and gantries. This would kill any Pioneer, Sansui or Marantz amp in no time.

 

[70salesguy]

My Crown gear matches up very well with JBL speakers.

My PS-400s put out a lot of clean power and the JBL 4311/4312s perform well with lots of clean power available.

The PS-400 is rated at 330 wpch at 4 ohms. When I run 2 pair or 4311s, that's 660 watts through 4 4311s.

You should hear "Baba O'Riley" or "Won't get fooled again" with this setup!!! :yes:

 

[whoaru99]

Tfarney is correct, The crown Macrotech is in a whole different league with respect to bullet-proof performance. A Macrotech will drive a 1 ohm load all day and produce many KW of clean power. They often are used to drive shaker tables and gantries. This would kill any Pioneer, Sansui or Marantz amp in an hour.

An hour? Eh... probably not even that long. No disrespect intended.

Want power? Look for the Crown MA10000 or the big Crown/Techron industrial amps. Unless you've got a 208V 3-phase hookup, don't bother....

Actually, for sheer power, the Lab.gruppen FB 13000 is as powerful as I've seen. 13kW from a 27lb box....

 

[grateful]

Funny you mention that I had edited that post for the same reason.

 

[vincei]

Crown Macro Reference or Studio Reference amps did have incredible damping factor specs, but I don't believe they were $10K.

If one keeps a keen eye out, you can sometimes find a clean example for $1000 - $1500. They were discontinued by Crown a while back.

I stand corrected. I remember they were pricy and drooling over them in the late 80's, early 90's or so. I think they were the studio reference models I am remembering.

My brother had a band 15 years ago and brought home a couple of new Macrotech 2400's I beleive, the sound was incredibly effortless and clean, they were in TOTAL control of my old Paradigm's...

 

[grateful]

The Lab.gruppen is one bad ass amp 13,000 watts 58A output current per channel continuous. 195 v sine waves. not that bad for $7000.

 

[vincei]

The Lab.gruppen is one bad ass amp 13,000 watts 58A output current per channel continuous. 195 v sine waves. not that bad for $7000.

A bargain to me...but is there a speaker powerfull enough?? :scratch2:

 

[powerman]

Some Crown Pictures

 

[Aage]

They often are used to drive shaker tables and gantries.

I remember hearing this about the DC300 back in the day, but never once saw any documentation to corroborate it.

IIRC, the idea was (is?) that the amp took the small signals given by operator input to move the table and converted them to higher voltages suitable to drive the heavy motors that were "shaking" the table in order to sort various types of ore.

Does anyone have anything that backs up these claims either from then or now, or could the idea be no more than another Urban Legend?

Please let me make it clear that I'm not looking to doubt anyone's word here, rather to confirm or dispel a statement that's been around for a long time.

 

[grateful]

We used to fix crown DC-300a amps at Stereo lab in Harvard Square where I worked. They were owned by Mass General Hospital and they drove the gantries for the CAT scan machines. Those motors were several HP each. To test them after repair, we had 4 150 Watt industrial light bulbs mounted on the ceiling. The Crown would drive all 4 to full brightness. These days Crown Amps have 100 times more power than the old DC-300a.

 

[Scorpion8]

Some Crown Pictures ...

Wow! Awesome equipment.

 

[tfarney]

Dear Powerman,

Do you have any interest in adoption?

Tim

 

[tfarney]

While I'm on a roll....

These --

are racks. Racks have wheels. Steel handles. Equipment bolts into racks. Racks contain no glass or pretty wood. That's furniture.

Tim

 

[whoaru99]

I remember hearing this about the DC300 back in the day, but never once saw any documentation to corroborate it.

IIRC, the idea was (is?) that the amp took the small signals given by operator input to move the table and converted them to higher voltages suitable to drive the heavy motors that were "shaking" the table in order to sort various types of ore.

Does anyone have anything that backs up these claims either from then or now, or could the idea be no more than another Urban Legend?

Please let me make it clear that I'm not looking to doubt anyone's word here, rather to confirm or dispel a statement that's been around for a long time.

I read one article where an amp (don't recall exact brand) was allegedly used as the power supply to run a washing machine at a demo. They fed a 60Hz signal to the power amp then connected the power amp output to the washing machine.

Been searching a bit to see if I could find the article, but no luck so far.