Cool John,
I once saw a rack of Crest amps here for a local beach party, the mobil generator on the back of a semitrailer was singing in tune with the bass guitarist The 3 phase from the rack was warm.
Can you post ue a picture of your amp.
Ian
Cool John,
I once saw a rack of Crest amps here for a local beach party, the mobil generator on the back of a semitrailer was singing in tune with the bass guitarist The 3 phase from the rack was warm.
Can you post ue a picture of your amp.
Ian
Right Ian,
After a good amount of Chimay ale, I'll make a lot of sense about amps. Maybe tomorrow, or take the following with a grain of salt.
Macs cost about 10%/watt of the cost of the Pass amps and produce quite a decent sound.
In some realms, ie. computers, where absolute reliability is an issue such cost factors with minimal performance gain, 10x is likely justified as the Royal Bank of Canada recently illustrated. (Or the British Air Traffic Control System)
The Pass amps look great and in some envrionments, that could be the deciding factor. The design and execution is really neat and that is great.
I've always thought the real issue with an audio system was the speaker and hence JBL.
Your friend,
John
PS
Being a true conservative, I like the idea of a transformer between the power supply and the voice coils.
Last edited by John Nebel; 06-07-2004 at 09:03 PM.
John,
Great you here from you,
Be careful of that ale, its a strong drop of amber, but nice.
I recall drifting into a quiet lull sipping that stuff in front of the wall of sound. Bo played the same trick on me with some California Red while listening to his 4345's, then he beat a confession out of me.
I told him what I thought which was what he wanted to hear , I mean how could I lie about speakers I own, I mean built. Damn Yankee.
On the transfomers, I recall your conservative stance was more akin to the memory of a splat of Dc potential difference across the voice coil of the JBLs and of the combustion that followed.
No names about your previous amps, they just passed away gracefully, we don't want to give the tribe indigestion.
Pass caters to the taste of Japanese market and price budds, I suspect thats a carefully blended formulae.
Ian
Ps. Have you fired up the 260 yet?
Last edited by Ian Mackenzie; 06-07-2004 at 09:28 PM.
I like my bass, if your playing a recording with good music, to sound what it would sound like if actually listening to the musicians themselves! Or close enough to it!
Crown DC-300A. I grew up on these and they did do bass very nicely. That little extra grunt on the bottom, due to direct coupled design! But Im needing more power these days, the drivers today are made to operate with more power.
Crown PSA-2. Lots of rumble, thunder, and punch, and did two ohms mono all day long! So thats like 1 ohm per side. But things dont last forever, especially running 14 hours a day here!
Crest 7001,s and up. Well, I always stuck to Class AB designs, but what can I say? Crest sounds really good, especially for bass. Warm, round, punchy, articulate, strong and powerful, and they run all day long! Of ALL the NEW technology amps these days the Crest Pro Series ( expensive ones, lol ) does the do! Other makers 2 rackspace weight saving jobs offer lots of 1kHz power, but many are a bit shy sounding on the extreme bottom. Not the Crests, they get down, and boogie, cleanly too! We were listening to an old Hector Lavoe cut the other night, and the way the bassline sounded was the way it sounds when you hear a bassist play! My mngr Miguel said ya know Scott, that sounds like the guy playing the Fender Jazzmaster! I agreed, and we both said it didnt sound like this through the Crowns!
Crest has a warm, heavy tone, but is clean, and it works! I have been running three amps now for a couple of weeks so I am convinced they do in fact work and play great!
When I went to place my order for my new 15,s they were doing a demo for a potential customer of a sound system. All Crown macro tech powered! They had four folded horns, two per channel of the Crown Macro tech 5000VZ, and while it had lots of punch, it lacked roundness that I like in my bass sound! Simply said, although the 5000 has alot of power, it wasnt the sound I was looking for. I knew I wanted to get back here and listen to my Crests, and jones for the rest of them to arrive! Then, they hooked up the same four folded horns to the latest offering from Crown, the I-Tech 4000! I thought the macros were a touch thin on the deep bottom, well, this was even thinner! And I thought the Crown I-Tech lacked musicality! Musicality is important to me. So, Crest has my vote! I suppose that the I-Techs, with their onboard DSP speaker mngt system and very high power levels will appeal to some companies looking to reduce the amount of componentry, and weight.
PSS Audio. I would love to audition one of the PSS Audio amplifiers! 1200 wpc of Class AB power is appealing, but no one I know here has the line of PSS products! Nor does anyone I know, know anything of how the amps sound, I am sure they work, but, and this is just as important as sound quality to me, if the amps arent really available here in the U.S., service and support isnt here to back the product up, either! I mean, IF an amp goes down, and it happens from time to time, but not often, I can get fast, factory service, for Crest. My tech shop knows the crest amps well, and can repair them should this become neccesary. Yuri, my system is an entertainment system, in a buisiness, and technical support here in the U.S. is important too! I dont doubt what you say about your amplifiers, but if you want sales here in the U.S. you need a distributor, with a network of retailers, and service support for your products here in the U.S., too!
All in all, I am digging my new Crests, and cant wait for the rest of them!
Last edited by scott fitlin; 06-08-2004 at 11:55 AM.
Scott,
I can relate to your experiences. Were you playing vinyl ?
Rob took me over to the Downtown to hear Steve Howe play when I was on Long Island. They have a big Crown Macro-Tech installation, I recall they had a rack for of 5002's? and a smaller one. Its was very clean, crisp and dynamic but beyond that I could not comment.
Over hear I have heard a Mackie 400 watt mosfet amp and Australian monitor mosfet 1k2 going flat out into some JBL System 700 boxes and while they had the sweetness of the typical mosfet sound in the highs, the bass did not really get up and boogie and sounded compressed in comparison to my grand Daddy Phase Linear 700. (they are popular with bass players)
If you really need large amounts of power, A/B is the only viable alternative. But on my domestic front I plan to experiement with modest class A amps (under 100 watts) for a 4 way 4345 active affair soon enough and see what happens.
.
The one thing I have come to appreciate, particularly with a 4 way passive system, is that you can create a crisp, fat or thin bass sound by making subtle adjustments to the level pads.
But there's more to it than the flatness across the whole spectrum, the overtones can really shape our perceptions about bass, and if they are scewed up it can become tiring after a while.
I will keep my eye out some of Yuri's amps, I recall seeing them via an Ebay link to an outfit called Cannon Sound down here
I am sure the PSS are a fine sounding amp but I am more interested in the quality of the first watt of power with 95 db sensitivity speakers (with 107 db horns & 105 db slots) rather than the last watt.
That 's why I am wedded to class A, at least until a new class of amp is discovered that can do it better.
Ian
Ps Bo the artisan Knob Farmer is away. But I am sure he will give ample evidence on his QSC amps when he is around.
I hear you, but I have several macros on hand, 3600,s and 2400,s and they never satisfied me like the older generation of Crowns. I also had a set of macro tech 5000,s and sold them. That ODEP circuit. I hate it!
Class A is great, always was, always will be, but, its impractical to use here in my place. The heat, size, and power factors would limit me to using Class A for mid horns and tweeters only!
Phase Linear 700B. Always a perennial favorite among musicians, pros, and Hi Fi nuts alike! Massive power transformer, this thing outdoes a DC-300A no problem!
The Crest sound does what I like bass to do! Big power, big bass sound, clean, and clear notes. But, I will use only a bryston or Crown D-150 or Mc 2125 on my mid horns, and stay with my Crown D-75,s on tweeters!
its all a matter of preference! And yes, i play vinyl, but I play CD,s these days too!
Hello Scott and all others!Originally posted by scott fitlin
PSS Audio. I would love to audition one of the PSS Audio amplifiers! 1200 wpc of Class AB power is appealing, but no one I know here has the line of PSS products! Nor does anyone I know, know anything of how the amps sound, I am sure they work, but, and this is just as important as sound quality to me, if the amps arent really available here in the U.S., service and support isnt here to back the product up, either! I mean, IF an amp goes down, and it happens from time to time, but not often, I can get fast, factory service, for Crest. My tech shop knows the crest amps well, and can repair them should this become neccesary. Yuri, my system is an entertainment system, in a buisiness, and technical support here in the U.S. is important too! I dont doubt what you say about your amplifiers, but if you want sales here in the U.S. you need a distributor, with a network of retailers, and service support for your products here in the U.S., too!
The fact is quite simple: We, at PSS are a "small" company compared to Harmann and other “monster”.
The US market is half of the worldwide market and if a brand is introduced in the US market either it is a mess or it is casino!
If it is mess what is the use trying the US market?
If it casino, we are not able delivering all the needs of the US market and if ever it happens we will be burnt till the end of our lives!
That is why I prefer getting the other 50% of the market, being strong enough before going into the US market!
Anyhow, what I am ready to do, for you Scott and Ian (read my next post) is to ship you for free an amplifier (you will have to pay the local taxes and clear the parcel).
You will be able listening at it, and printing here your report!
This can be very helpful for us (and if you need any assistance, we have our forum boards and all our technical data’s are on our web site, in such a case everyone can service a PSS amplifier).
Ian,Originally posted by Ian Mackenzie
I am sure the PSS are a fine sounding amp but I am more interested in the quality of the first watt of power with 95 db sensitivity speakers (with 107 db horns & 105 db slots) rather than the last watt.
I think PSS amplifiers sounds good from the 1st watt they deliver!
As I know you are a class A lover, let me suggest you the following.
As you know we have an excellent distributor in Australia, NET.
We must ship him in the next 2-week time some amplifiers.
I will add a PSS1200, same amplifier that I intend sending to Scott, and you can get if from NET.
Perhaps will NET ask you to pay a little something for the carriage and income fees?
Anyhow you will be able listening at it and printing a full report thus everybody can have a better idea about our sound quality.
Do you agree with this offer?
In such a case get in touch with me (Scott please do the same) and call NET (Billy Mawyer) to settle the case.
I have sent Yuri a pm.
Thankyou Yuri,
I am humbled, but please I am hardly a professional equipment reviewer but I will do my best and say what I hear.
It will be very interesting to see / hear your amplifier.
Ian
Yuri I have sent you a PM, and I look forward to reveiwing your product!
Scott,
Well received!
A PSS1200 is leaving next Monday and in a week time UPS should ring at your door (I hope so)!
Why not opening a thread just for this review?
Why not lending it to other users in the US once you performed your "review"?
We can talk about it.
This amplifier is not intended to be sent back.
Ian will receive one too with our next shipment in Australia.
All I ask is to post your comments on our forum board too!
Looking forward , or should I say back to the "Future" I recall the impact of biamplifing my first speaker system.
But should we call this " Bi amping" or "The Wow factor?"
Surely its the bass addicts favourite past time.
Its been a while since I bi amped, but the truth was bought home to roost when I heard Bo's 4345s biamped with his much loved QSC amps during my visit to the USA.
Without a doubt I was "impressed" with the bass performance of this system. I mean hello it just doesn't get any better than this.
Either the 2245's or the amps, it don't matter, that system just disolves before your very eyes. Why?
Its one thing to talk about damping factor, but the dimension of authority, power and the room ambience it creates does take some figuring, and there is no sub woofer in this system.
The perceptual cues of effortless bass really makes the difference between an audition and " an experience" IMHO.
I suspect the whole manner in which the "a system" is set up by way of enclosure positoning, the geometry of the room and careful attention to room equalisation has something to do with it.
So, is it about the numbers and the amp you chose, the decison to bi amp or the way you went about it that provides musical enjoyment?
If you have been there, done it or thinking about it, your comments are most welcome
Ian
Last edited by Ian Mackenzie; 06-12-2004 at 07:05 AM.
Not only do I intend listening to this amp on my system, but I already have plans to lend the amp to two different people with systems to listen as well.
Talking is one thing, putting it in someones possesion to use themselves is another, so...............
You can prepare a set of good balanced input wires and output ones with Speakon plugs!
Yuri,
I have balanced preamp outputs and speakon connectors so I am ready.
Ian
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