Crown XLS- for the rest of us!

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OzarkTom

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #800 on: 20 Dec 2014, 11:34 am »
Hm, I dunno. You can get the Cardas copper posts for the same price. Unless they offer proof I've found the chinese ebay connectors to sometimes be not what they claim. They do look pretty though.

Rex is very familiar with the Cardas, those were twice as much as these and you had to drill the hole larger and file quite a bit on the binding posts to make them fit. That was on the tour TBI amp. He likes the look of these over the Cardas. Since his amp is new, drilling will probably void the warranty.

According to that EBay listing, those binding posts were designed in the USA.


srb

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #801 on: 20 Dec 2014, 01:45 pm »
Since his amp is new, drilling will probably void the warranty.

Replacing and soldering in new binding posts won't?

OzarkTom

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #802 on: 20 Dec 2014, 01:54 pm »
Replacing and soldering in new binding posts won't?

There is no soldering, so the originals can easily be replaced if you don't drill the holes larger.

wushuliu

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #803 on: 20 Dec 2014, 03:00 pm »
Rex is very familiar with the Cardas, those were twice as much as these and you had to drill the hole larger and file quite a bit on the binding posts to make them fit. That was on the tour TBI amp. He likes the look of these over the Cardas. Since his amp is new, drilling will probably void the warranty.

According to that EBay listing, those binding posts were designed in the USA.

Ok, just as long as it's clear that those posts won't have the same level of copper purity as the Cardas or Pomona tellurium posts. As for 'designed in USA' or any other language on those pages, you have to take them with a huge grain of salt. You've been warned!

btw the bare copper Cardas are 4/$50 at Soniccraft...

JohanH

  • Jr. Member
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Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #804 on: 20 Dec 2014, 09:18 pm »
Ok, just as long as it's clear that those posts won't have the same level of copper purity as the Cardas or Pomona tellurium posts.

Ad says they're copper plated (although eutectic) so no worries

*Scotty*

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #805 on: 20 Dec 2014, 09:28 pm »
I have used them and somehow the "copper" plating makes up for what ever the purity of the brass substrate has.
Scotty
« Last Edit: 21 Dec 2014, 12:32 am by *Scotty* »

a.wayne

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Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #806 on: 20 Dec 2014, 11:08 pm »
Hey look, guys listening and comparing amplfiers , errr, ahhh ........  :lol:

OzarkTom

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #807 on: 21 Dec 2014, 12:46 am »
Hey look, guys listening and comparing amplfiers , errr, ahhh ........  :lol:

Well, if you like xylophones, this is the best class d amp I have ever heard for that type of music. It is very natural sounding.

Tomy2Tone

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #808 on: 21 Dec 2014, 01:10 am »
Well, if you like xylophones, this is the best class d amp I have ever heard for that type of music. It is very natural sounding.

Hey Tom,

Is there any appetizer you can give us on the Cryo version vs the Salis mod version?

I'm anxiously waiting for my Crowns to return, I need some watts!

OzarkTom

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #809 on: 21 Dec 2014, 01:22 am »
Hey Tom,

Is there any appetizer you can give us on the Cryo version vs the Salis mod version?

I'm anxiously waiting for my Crowns to return, I need some watts!

The cryo amp is not here yet. But what made a big difference tonight was putting a moongel pad on top of each cedar ring and weighing the amp down. I sat two 2.5 pound barbell weights on top, that made quite a bit of an improvement in the detail area. Even the volume seemed to have gone up slightly.

Tomy2Tone

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #810 on: 21 Dec 2014, 01:31 am »
The cryo amp is not here yet. But what made a big difference tonight was putting a moongel pad on top of each cedar ring and weighing the amp down. I sat two 2.5 pound barbell weights on top, that made quite a bit of an improvement in the detail area. Even the volume seemed to have gone up slightly.

I keep forgetting about those moongel pads, next order on Amazon I'll have to look those up.

Has the Salis mod fully broken in? Just curious to hear any progress while I wait.

OzarkTom

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #811 on: 21 Dec 2014, 01:40 am »
I keep forgetting about those moongel pads, next order on Amazon I'll have to look those up.

Has the Salis mod fully broken in? Just curious to hear any progress while I wait.

Actually this Crown amp was never broken in. Salis Audio never had the time to break it in. At the moment this amp still has less than 100 hours on it.

I was getting a slight fatiguing edge tonight, I figured the Friday night AC gremlins was causing it, or the amp is not broken in enough. But the moongel pads and weights solved that problem. :D

On Amazon, there is one outfit that sells the moongel pads for $20 and you get four packs of six pads.

jackman

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #812 on: 21 Dec 2014, 01:50 am »
The cryo amp is not here yet. But what made a big difference tonight was putting a moongel pad on top of each cedar ring and weighing the amp down. I sat two 2.5 pound barbell weights on top, that made quite a bit of an improvement in the detail area. Even the volume seemed to have gone up slightly.

You should just slap a couple 45lb plates on top of the amp for even more detail! :thumb:

This thread is getting silly.  It's a nice amp for very little money. Try it and return if you don't like it. It didn't sound great in my system but it's the best cheap amp I've tried. I'm just amazed this thread has gone on for so long.  I heard the cryo version at Roscoe's house and it sounded Bette than stick but I'm not running out to buy one just het because, although I thought it sounded better, I'm not sure i could tell the difference between the cryo and regular in double blind testing.





OzarkTom

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #813 on: 21 Dec 2014, 02:10 am »
You should just slap a couple 45lb plates on top of the amp for even more detail! :thumb:

This thread is getting silly.  It's a nice amp for very little money. Try it and return if you don't like it. It didn't sound great in my system but it's the best cheap amp I've tried. I'm just amazed this thread has gone on for so long.  I heard the cryo version at Roscoe's house and it sounded Bette than stick but I'm not running out to buy one just het because, although I thought it sounded better, I'm not sure i could tell the difference between the cryo and regular in double blind testing.

No amp is perfect for everyone. So far, you are the only negative.  No one else has heard the Crown sound 2D. Even the Ncore tour brought several negatives. Less than half on the tour bought the Ncores, and there has been a few on that tour that has sold their Ncores. And this tour has just got started. You and Roscoe had the amp almost a month.

I never do A/B blind tests with amps, any Class D amp and most of the others needs at least 24 hours on to sound its best. I found that out as a dealer back in the 80's.

lowtech

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Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #814 on: 21 Dec 2014, 02:24 am »
Please help.  Was the Behringer iNUKE last month's favorite or is it still available for an upcoming month? 



p.s. The Neutrik connectors on the back of this one are of good quality and don't need to be changed/modified/frozen/etc.

/unsubscribed.

DaveC113

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Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #815 on: 21 Dec 2014, 03:23 am »
The iNuke might also be worth trying for a subwoofer amp. The 6000W rating makes it seem much less appealing, on a 20A 120V circuit you have 2400 watt capacity. Could it even hit 6kW on brief peaks? Can it gracefully recover from a 6kW peak? I don't know...

Those ebay binding posts are also a Furutech copy of the entry level FP series posts, copper plated brass seems weird, I'd go with a plating that won't corrode. I'm trying out some of the Furutech low mass binding posts with rhodium plating, they look really cool. Probably not in the Crown, but maybe later if they really make a difference vs the Pomonas...

I'm not sure absolute judgements on gear ever lead to worthwhile discussions, everyone has different speakers and the amp-speaker pairings combined with all the other preferences, biases and subjective factors are too different to be able to make sweeping judgements on the value of most any gear. Like most things implementation of the system is key and there's no doubt that the Crown amp will not be a good match with every speaker in the world, but it may be a good match with some...

With my speakers the result is just short of what I'd expect from a $5-10k amp. It lacks the last few percent of refinement, correct tonality and midrange detail and bloom vs a world class amp. My DIY EL34 amp had no problem competing with an Air Tight Preamp driving Fi 2a3 monoblocks with my Omega speakers and Lamhorns with AER drivers, and I also have a totl Odyssey Stratos, so I have a decent reference, and the Crown does some things better then either the SET or the Stratos. I prefer it over the SET for some kinds of music and also for volumes over the high 80 dB range. The Stratos is probably better than the Crown overall but I do not have a good preamp for it right now so it's hard to tell... too much gain and it's way too noisy with 60 dB attenuated off the signal in my preamp to make a good comparison.  On imaging, with the Crown, the system is capable of having the speakers AND the room boundaries completely disappear, I get images in front of my speakers and also way behind the rear wall, and with a stage width much wider than the speaker placement. It images nearly as good as my SET amp, which is saying a lot as that is one of it's strong points. I like having both the Crown and the SET amp around so I have options.  :green:




*Scotty*

Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #816 on: 21 Dec 2014, 03:30 am »
Do you have images between you and the speakers and images above or behind you? I have had some amps fill only the front half of the room with a sound field and other amps that fill the entire room with a sound field equaling total immersion in a recreated acoustic space.
Scotty

JohanH

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 25
Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #817 on: 21 Dec 2014, 03:41 am »
This thread is getting silly. 

That's half the fun, isn't it.
Other half would be useful information.

So please be seated, have some munchies and a beer

Cheers

dlaloum

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Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #818 on: 21 Dec 2014, 03:53 am »
That's half the fun, isn't it.
Other half would be useful information.

So please be seated, have some munchies and a beer

Cheers
:thumb: :beer:

DaveC113

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Re: Crown XLS- for the rest of us!
« Reply #819 on: 21 Dec 2014, 04:05 am »
Do you have images between you and the speakers and images above or behind you? I have had some amps fill only the front half of the room with a sound field and other amps that fill the entire room with a sound field equaling total immersion in a recreated acoustic space.
Scotty

It's an "immersion" experience for sure, although I don't think I've heard an image behind me. Part of it is the horn/waveguide in my speakers though. It eliminates 1st reflections and is capable of projecting the images forward, with far more direct vs reflected sound the room doesn't interfere with imaging or soundstage size, and the detail is greatly improved too. I've had other amps that are not capable of this even if the speakers are, the sound seems to "stick" to the speakers and they don't audibly disappear. It takes a good amp to be able to produce the kind of results I am getting.