Posted by ToFo [ 12.76.216.141 ] on December 28, 2004 at 15:39:35:

In Reply to: Crown Studio Reference amps posted by trev on December 27, 2004 at 19:02:20:

Not a lot of home users at this price, feedback may be hard to find. I have two Crown amps and the fan in my PB-1 is too loud for home use, but my D-75A beats my Tandberg, Adcoms and Sumo and is all I use now. I have heard newer variable fan Crowns, and fan noise is ok at low power, but if you aren't pushing it enough to speed up the fan the big ones may be more amp than needed. If you use big power routinely, wire the amp to another room where fan noise is no nuisance. I run the D-75A (40 watts/ch.) into a Theater 4 Pi's. it's loud and has enough headroom for recorded sound. My 125 watt/channel Adcom sounds like less power than the Crown(40 watts), but an spl meter tells me the Adcom is 4 dB louder. The Adcom rattles dishes and doors, but the Crown creates a sensation in the chest and stomach that is blatantly obvious. If I didn't know that both amps were of equally wide band, quicker than audio waves and ruler flat, I would guess the Crown played an octave deeper and had half the rise time. funny, since the D-75A's power supply would fit in my pocket. I do not know if or how it is possible, but I can easily demonstrate it.

What does this have to do with the reference series? Well, all Crown amps I have heard display the characteristic that I have described, so I guess the reference would just be more and better.

As for brightness, since I purchased a real time analyser and digital processor I have learned that all of my "bright" speakers have linearity issues in the top two octaves and upon correction sound great. I am now convinced that driver and room issues swamp the tiny differences that exist between switching and amplifying devices. I used to be a capacitor and cable freak, so on some level, I did not want to believe the data, but I can't ignore the best sound I have ever had in my house. I also can't ignore that a computer hooked to a "PA" has put kilobuck's worth or hi-fi in the bedroom. Some might not agree, but it is sweet to me.
Thomas

Replies: