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Crown 4|300N Amplifier Review

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 14 7.5%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 68 36.4%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 95 50.8%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 10 5.3%

  • Total voters
    187

Hipster Doofus

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Wow , thanks….

No fan of fans….just when that wonderful quiet passage in a track presents itself and you realize how good your hearing still is.
you want to like these crown products but then there is all this mediocre behavior.

I have a friend with some crown150‘s or 300’s with rack handles. Just beautiful old school engineering. He told me some were use to power transducers( I think) to vibrate airplane parts in laboratories.

When will crown buy toppings and give us what we need.
 

charlielaub

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Hi first time posting in this forum, but have often lurked to see the reviews and measurements. Thanks, Amir, for your efforts.

First off, this amp (the Crown Dci 4-300N) is positioned at the bottom tier of the DCi-N line from Crown. There are two or three similar variants from what I can tell. There is an all-analog line (the regular DCi), the networked DCi-N line like this one, and the related CDi (note its just a different order of the same letters, argh!) that includes DSP. These are "install" amps, meant to be set up once and then relied upon for years. This probably explains the Phoenix terminal blocks. You can easily buy a balanced cable, cut off one end, and connect the bare wires to the plug-in header. It's really no big deal. To me they seem to be much better built than, for example, the XLS line of amps from Crown.

I prefer an analog amp, with an outboard DSP and I own one of the higher power versions of the DCi line - the Dci 2-1250. I bought it used for about $1200 IIRC. There is no way I could afford a new one! If you look at the MFG specs for the DCi line of amps you can see that the 300 and 600 models are the lesser cabable members of the line in terms of power, and halve power into 2R. But the 1250 variants seem to offer much more robust PS and amp performance, offering the same rated power into 2R and bridge mode scales as you would expect. I will attach a screen shot from the manual showing the power ratings. Crown guarantees the power 20-20k so you can rely on the amp performing well for subwoofer duties. The PS is universal voltage and offers active PFC. Seems to be very well built. The 1250 W power level (2500W bridged) eclipses Purifi and Hypex offerings if you need higher power levels.

The only real downside to these amps (for "audiophile" use) is the fan(s). There is a fan on the rear of the chassis and one internal fan. It might be possible to replace them with lower noise versions (I opened one amp up to check it out) but I have not done so. They are noticeable but not super loud and seem to cycle on and off (not a variable speed implementation) periodically.
 

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Geert

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Ok maybe a small touring band or person can use this amp :) or down at the local pup for a PA ?

Even the top range Crown amps have build in DSP. Why wouldn't they, in a lot of pro applications the cost of that feature is peanuts and it makes life a lot easier. It turns the amp into a flexible and autonomous building block. Note in pro sound it's not only about crossovers and eq, often also delay and limiting are required. Looks like a lot of people can't imagine how complex a large PA system can be, and the level of agility required in concert sound applications. (This is a fixed install amp, but I guess the comments wouldn't be different is it was a touring amp).
 

pma

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Very high background noise, poor linearity at higher frequencies. I really do not like this amplifier. It seems that producers of active boxes are able to put inside anything. This is PA, not home Hi-Fi, right?
 

NTK

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Very high background noise, poor linearity at higher frequencies. I really do not like this amplifier. It seems that producers of active boxes are able to put inside anything. This is PA, not home Hi-Fi, right?
Yes. Professional use. "Home Hi-Fi" has no use of this kind of warranty ;)

crown.png
 

pma

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Yes. Professional use.
That's fine for PA, but not for the home listening purposes when you sit 1.5m - 2m from the speaker. I thought ASR was dedicated to home systems, not to PA systems. Have I missed something?
 

sarumbear

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Ok maybe a small touring band or person can use this amp :) or down at the local pup for a PA ?
Have you ever been to a large venue concert and peeked around the amplifier racks? If you did you would have seen amplifiers like this.
 

sarumbear

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I thought ASR was dedicated to home systems, not to PA systems. Have I missed something?
or I have. Where do you see that declaration?
 

pma

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or I have. Where do you see that declaration?
In the range of equipment normally tested here and in the public I can meet here and their questions and description of their systems. Have not seen much of rock band sound engineers and their equipment here. They have different forum.

If we are interested in PA, then I would recommend to test these amps:



Once again, I did not have an idea this is a PA forum.
 

Geert

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Have not seen much of rock band sound engineers and their equipment here. They have different forum.

There are different ones active here.
 

pma

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Pro Audio amplifiers are interesting because at least some of them (such as the Yamaha P3500s that I linked to earlier) are eminently usable in the domestic context, and can be quite affordable.
Noise, noise and again noise. And distortion. Enough on stage, not enough at home.

1672940261494.png
 

PeteL

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In the range of equipment normally tested here and in the public I can meet here and their questions and description of their systems. Have not seen much of rock band sound engineers and their equipment here. They have different forum.

If we are interested in PA, then I would recommend to test these amps:



Once again, I did not have an idea this is a PA forum.
Some of us can enjoy both, and all things audio related for that matter.
 

sarumbear

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Everett T

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I am still curious to see how the now discontinued more traditional Yamaha Pxx00S series compares. See here some AP measurements of the 2x350 watt into 8 Ohm Yamaha P3500S: https://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum...mpli-yamaha-p3500s-mise-a-jour-t30056383.html At the time it sold for some 500 euros, and sometimes even less. I gave my son the 2x250 watt P2500s (just 300 euros) and the fan never comes on in domestic use. It is well made, looks good, and sounds fine. It does not have quite the versatile dsp options of this Crown amp, but it does have an adjustable high pass filter, which makes it an ideal choice to combine in a stereo system with subwoofers. Thus far, I have not yet seen measurements of the Yamaha class D successors to this series.
Other then the amplifier part, they are not really comparable products. Aside from dsp, the BLU Link audio networking capabilities allow for greater control over a medium to large multichannel systems in the digital domain providing solutions with less equipment and more cost effective cabling.
 
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Everett T

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That's fine for PA, but not for the home listening purposes when you sit 1.5m - 2m from the speaker. I thought ASR was dedicated to home systems, not to PA systems. Have I missed something?
Whose home, because this product has a place for usage in the home theater environment, just not everyone's. As for what ASR is here for, there are plenty of reviews of products that are not necessarily geared towards home usage such as audio interfaces. If it's audio, it's relevant :)
 
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