Considering a crown amp. Is it the right choice?

[ssf]

No matter how powerful an amp is, if one is careful with the volume control, it will not harm the speakers. In fact, low power amps overdriven is more harmful to the speakers than powerful amps used with care.

I have my center channel powered with a bridged crown xls 2502 which outputs somewhere around 1500 watts. The center channel is a ribbon tweeter to boot. No issues at all.

Just be careful with the volume.

 

[Nagaraj S]

have my center channel powered with a bridged crown xls 2502

@ssf , I am planning to do the same- bridge a Crown amp for the Center channel alone. Does it make a significant difference in Center channel SQ and overall movie sound experience? Wouldn’t the amp signature of LandR be different from the Center?

My center is an MA C350, powered by Marantz 6013. The LandR are powered by Parasound. I am planning to add a bridged Crown amp to the Center alone.

 

[ssf]

@ssf , I am planning to do the same- bridge a Crown amp for the Center channel alone. Does it make a significant difference in Center channel SQ and overall movie sound experience? Wouldn’t the amp signature of LandR be different from the Center?

My center is an MA C350, powered by Marantz 6013. The LandR are powered by Parasound. I am planning to add a bridged Crown amp to the Center alone.

Does it make a significant difference
a) in center channel SQ ?
No. Audyssey will level match all the channels so the benefits one will get is headroom.

b) Overall movie sound experience
Yes. Now that the AVR is not handling the FCR channels, it has a lot more power/headroom to provide to the other remaining channels.

Wouldn’t the amp signature of LandR be different from the Center?
The Crown is quite a neutral amp, so I don't think you will notice any difference. I did not but I have poor ears.


I am planning to add a bridged Crown amp to the Center alone.
To be honest, bridging is an overkill. I did it just because the feature was available. The Marantz will not provide sufficient gain to the Crowns, so the gain on the crowns will have to be set to 3 O'Clock position if not bridged. If bridged, then 1 O'Clock. With this, audyssey should set the levels to near 0.

 

[amrutmhatre90]

Adding to the above post,
Add crowns to FR and FL first if you listen to music too.
Crowns are quite neutral that is a plus point when it comes to sound signature.
Like SSF said, even I have set the gains to 3 o clock and ran audyssey. But if your speakers are very sensitive, you might hear slight hiss from the tweeter. I hear it only when I get super close to the tweeter and put my ears next to it.

 

[Nagaraj S]

The Marantz will not provide sufficient gain to the Crowns, so the gain on the crowns will have to be set to 3 O'Clock position if not bridged.

Thanks for your detailed reply.
Wouldn’t turning the gain knob on the Crown all the way to the max, and then let Audyssey make the level matching be a better idea? I have used the same approach for the LandR power amp (Parasound recommends the same).

 

[ssf]

Thanks for your detailed reply.
Wouldn’t turning the gain knob on the Crown all the way to the max, and then let Audyssey make the level matching be a better idea? I have used the same approach for the LandR power amp (Parasound recommends the same).

One of the issues with Crown is that it has a higher noise floor than the other power amps used for HT/stereo. So, turning up the gain all the way will add a bit of noise and it can be heard if one puts his ear to the speakers. Bridging on the Crown will also raise the noise floor but as I have set the gain to 1 O'Clock, it's not noticable. You can try it out though.

 

[reubensm]

Thank you for responding.

Forgot to mention that, Since this one does not have a pre-out., I have ordered a speaker-level to Line-level adapter. Hope it will take care of this limitation.

Since these crown amplifiers have a lot of power. I was wondering if this is something my speaker can handle considering the mentioned RMS value.

View attachment 58449

Pls post a pic of the other side of the board as well

 

[reubenjack]

No matter how powerful an amp is, if one is careful with the volume control, it will not harm the speakers. In fact, low power amps overdriven is more harmful to the speakers than powerful amps used with care.

I have my center channel powered with a bridged crown xls 2502 which outputs somewhere around 1500 watts. The center channel is a ribbon tweeter to boot. No issues at all.

Just be careful with the volume.

Thank you for the information.

I will proceed in getting the crown amp then.

 

[reubenjack]

Pls post a pic of the other side of the board as well

I am yet to receive mine. I got below screenshot from the web though.

 

[mahender]

I am yet to receive mine. I got below screenshot from the web though.

View attachment 58532

Could you please share the link where you have purchased this, I am planning to add power amp to my Yamaha RX-v583(which does not have pre-outs) to give more power to my Taga platinum F-120 speakers