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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

sarumbear

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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.
I don’t understand your logic. Which of the following are domestic Hi-Fi equipment?





 

FrantzM

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One could also add the long list of speakers loved by many here.. Most of these are Pro speakers: Genelec, Neumann, JBL...

Not sure I get it
I don’t understand your logic. Which of the following are domestic Hi-Fi equipment?






either but eh.. to each his own opinion, I guess...

Peace.
 

ROOSKIE

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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?
W
 

ROOSKIE

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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?
I like the pro audio reviews. Both speakers and amps and other gear.
Geez who is not grateful for the Neuman & Genelec reviews among many others.
I use pro amps in my main system and have used a few different units.

Before the Hypex&Purifi DIY options pro amps and ICE power amps were the best high powered options around for reasonable money and are still good choices in a lot of cases.

Sure high power @1.5-2m near field or in a small room is not usually needed but even in a medium room (12.5'×24')sitting 12 feet from each speaker I deff use it with some speakers.

Anyway this is the official ASR greeting and I am certain this amp is audio related.

Audio, Audio, Audio!This is the forum where we try to impress each other with how much we know about audio. Heavy use of technical jargon is required for participation.​

 

GXAlan

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There is some distortion for sure, but I like the fact that there are no 60 Hz harmonic spikes that we see in other “audiophile” amplifiers.
 

Ajax

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Hi Amir,

Many thanks for the review.

Most domestic (consumer) products take their the lead from professional implementations . e.g. a lot of advancements in vehicles has been developed through racing. IMO it is important that we see what is happening in the professional audio world, the equipment they are using to record in studios, and to amplify live music.

An example is Benchmark Media, who began life as a pro audio company. My first DAC was a Benchmark HDR DAC1 that I purchased in 2010 on the advice of a father at my son's school, who was an equipment supplier to recording studios and live venues. This is a pre asynchronous DAC and Amir measured a SINAD of 105db, which was SOTA in 2010 and still holds its own well today. It is really a sophisticated pre amp with both analogue and digital inputs, and balanced and RCA outputs, together with volume control. It is still going strong and my son uses it in his home studio.

Anyway in all other industries professionals are at the forefront of product development and if we had followed them more closely there could well be less audio jewellery (foolery) in our hobby.
 

GXAlan

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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).

The delay is really important. The audio involved at a theme park like Disneyland is incredible. Think about parades and moving through rides where the audio seems seamless.



This post talks about how they synchronize 1000+ channels

https://www.reddit.com/r/Disneyland/comments/67y88a And this talks about how they pull off the audio in the rides.
 

Mnyb

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I have no problem with testing pro gear , the engineering efforts are interesting and interconnected with home audio .
And it’s interesting to read about products your less familiar with .

I for one start to wonder when home audio will use one of these fancy networking protocols used by pros or invent something similar ( Meridians use of Ethernet cables hardly counts its a bit lame )
 

pseudoid

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EN 54-16 Compliant for Life Safety Applications - Part 16 of the European Union’s (EU) EN 54 standard for fire detection and alarm systems has a specific requirement for voice alarms, which output messages in the form of a voice message rather than a traditional siren. This amplifier is certified as part of an EN 54-16 VACIE*, meeting the stringent requirements of a life safety system to serve the needs of hospitality, large venue and other markets.
From <https://www.crownaudio.com/en/products/dci-4-600n>
I am thinking that when a public emergency needs to be dealt with (and pronto), none of us would start contemplating the PA system's SNR or THD.;)
Some of the DCi4-series networking capabilities (e.g. HiQnet/BLU-Link/DriveCore) seem to provide some clever audio-system network control, whether it is part of a stadium or even a whole-home AV system.
202301_WallControl.png

Too bad it appears to be a proprietary-type network control.
Yes, Ethel! You can even use your iPhone to control it.
I voted with the GolfingPanther on this Crown for achieving in its intended mission but NIMBY!
 
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amirm

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This amp was used for the JBL 708i review if I'm not mistaken, since it was in the "lab", it would be a shame not to test it, whatever the potential for home usage is.
Exactly. Request was made in that thread and by its owner so I tested it. It was more work than usual due to having to reterminate it, resetting to factory pass through, etc. But thought it was worthwhile to do.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Someone pointed out that there is extra ADC/DAC in the pipeline and that is true. That sure degrades noise performance as we have seen in AVRs.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Nice review!

I have one question, How can I get Power on output level like you?
Just use recorder and plug in -> turn amp on?

Show pop noise seems really useful!
Yes, just use the recorder. Use 1/32 sample rate and run it continuously. Run it and then turn on the amp. Let it fully power on, wait a couple of seconds and then power off to catch anything that might happen then. FYI I use 45 kHz bandwidth for input to capture transients better.
 

jhaider

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I think the performance is an overall a pleasant surprise, albeit with some issues. I was expecting worse SNR/distortion, and less power into 4 Ohms. I suspect with BLU-Link SINAD would go up, but then you have to start with a digital signal and that's more difficult (digital source -> preamp/AVR/AVP with Dante -> BSS BLU-DA -> amps)?The latter because due to the rating I assumed some software limiting to around rated power at lower impedances. I'm personally not a fan of "underrating" amps. It's a dumb game amp makers sometimes play (car audio was the worst for this) to cultivate a mystique of some sort. I guess some people fall for it.

I think the SNR is good enough that a competent person with decent upstream equipment should be able to dial in an audibly noise free signal chain even into sensitive speakers.

That said, and writing from the perspective ov someone with a rack of Crown DCIn amps in use, unless one's speakers can utilize them to complete their crossover (e.g. JBL 7-series, M2), or they were available to purchase for a song, I’m not sure why one would buy this amp for home hifi use. It is an expensive amp that has to go in a separate room due to the loud fans. And there is some unfortunate load dependency, which is fine if designed around (i.e. as a dedicated amp for active or powered speakers) but I think should be absent in a general purpose amp. The exception in the line might be the 4|1250n model. That’s a really great compact single box controller-amp for multisubs, with basically unlimited headroom in a domestic context. Caveat is again you need to keep it in a separate room.
 

pseudoid

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Caveat is again you need to keep it in a separate room.
I had come across a caveat for the higher-power of these Crown PAs that had suggested the use of "forced air cooling".:oops:
[please don't make me dig out that reference. ty]
 

Chrispy

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The amp is what it is and suited/designed for what it is best at. That doesn't necessarily relate to "audiophile" 2ch use. Good grief.
 
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