Can a home stereo pre-amp drive a sound reinforcement amp such as Crown 802?

[robertbartsch]

I have tried this set up in the basement.

Pre-amp is an Adcom - 5 channel - circa 1990

Commercial sound reinforcement amp is a Crown 802 w/500 watts per channel.


This system sounds OK but I suspect the output voltage on the Adcom pre-amp does not match up well with the input circuits in the Crown commercial amp.

Is this correct?

I think I may sell the Crowns and go with Adcom power amps....

[grumpy]

You can download the manual. Pg 9 shows how to connect an unbalanced input. Spec says full power at 1.25Vrms input, which your adcom should be capable of (might have to go 2.5v unbalanced, but still should be ok). You might have to crank up the 802 attenuator knobs all the way to guaranty the amp clips before the preamp, and this might lead to more hiss than you'd like at home, but give it a whirl if you're so inclined. It won't hurt anything. You also might note having to turn the preamp knob up higher than you're used to with consumer amps.

[more10]

dbx 1024 owners manual. Old design, should cost at most 100 dollars.