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In Reply to: RE: Crown amps posted by triode@earthlink.net on February 14, 2015 at 11:42:32
In the "All Solid State" section of the Audio Circle forum, there is a thread called "Crown XLS...for the rest of us". Basically there is a tour amp making the rounds, with interesting reviews from the participants. Some folks love em, some not so much.One was Steve Ford, who tried the amp on his Maggie collection (he also is the mod for the planar section over there). Stated they were great with his MMGs. See page 58.
BTW, I use two xls1500s in my non-maggie system, and they sound very good for the money. Much better than the other budget pro amps I have in the house.
Edits: 02/14/15 02/14/15Follow Ups:
I have two Crown XLS2500 one for a pair of 1.7 and the other for a DWM. Both are connected directly to an Oppo 105 with XLR cables so no pre-amp.
I tried several used Crown amps thanks to the Guitar Center return policy. Very obvious sound differences for the better happen
1. without a pre-amp
2. with an amp that has a high watt rating at 2 ohm as well as 8 and 4.
3. using a separate amp for the DWM rather than wiring in parallel with the 1.7
4. Oppo volume is at 100% and I adjust gain on the amp (not convenient).
I had originally tried a Crown 1500 with the passive preamp and built-in tube buffer I was using, and did not like the sound. But I don't think the amp was properly broke-in yet either (less than 50 hours). Returned it to GC at no extra cost.
Then I replaced that pre with a SS preamp that had 10 dBs of gain and balanced outputs (NuForce MCP-18), to try the Crowns again. The pre is a bit laid back, and complements the two XLS 1500s I bought after that upgrade nicely.
Some folks will put a tube stage in front of them to improve the sound. I recently installed a NanoDIGI in the digital chain, so can use it's EQ for a little tone adjustment where needed.
The older Crown Macro Reference is one hell of an amp,,, You'd have to spend major $ to pass them.
I have a Crown Macro Reference amp driving my 1.6's . It's a beautiful thing : tight, powerful bass, ethereal mids/highs. I took the top off of it to keep it cool so the fan rarely kicks on. It puts out about 1160 wats / ch into 4 ohms. I'm sure I never use anywhere close to that amount.
I used to be a Crown dealer and installed the Macrotec series(2400 and 3600) in dance clubs. They were work horses and sounded great. The Macro Reference was made for studios and elite touring rigs. They are superb. Why did Crown discontinue them ??
"I see sound waves"
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