Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Crown CE1000 and CE2000 amps

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Topic: Crown CE1000 and CE2000 amps

Francis Casey
Film Handler

Posts: 44
From: Saint John, NB, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 08-30-2000 08:15 PM

Hi All
We have a fair number of these amps in our circuit and seem to be having a high failure rate compaired to other amps we have in use .
I would like to here other tech's opinions regarding these amps .
thanks
Francis

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-30-2000 08:19 PM

The crown CE amps suck
In one 24 plex only about a dozen amps survived the first month
a lot of bad soldering especially in those stupid crossovers
I never understood why crown tryed to compete with the QSC USA amps
QSC has that market sewnup with a good costeffective stable product

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-31-2000 02:55 AM

Suck? Geez, being a little easy on Crown there, eh Gord?

I must agree, go with QSC amps! You will have NO problems out of them. Crown amps have been a joke in every installation I've ever seen them in with extremely high failure rates.

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 08-31-2000 05:00 AM

Guys,
Is this the same Crown that built the high-end equipment like tape decks, etc. back in the late 70's? I ran sound in a huge church back then (in use 5-7 days a week) and we never had any problems with the amps, or any of the Crown Int'l equipment. Has crown gone the route of Sony?

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Jeff Stricker
Master Film Handler

Posts: 481
From: Calumet, Mi USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-31-2000 05:37 AM

In the past Crown had been known for high reliability conservative designs. It would be indeed unfortunate if their quality or product design has slipped. I remember using using Crown tape transports in broadcast applications in the 60's --- they ran and ran like the Everready Bunny.

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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 08-31-2000 07:25 AM

I've got one Crown CE-1000 that I use for my smallest mobile DJ system. The "CE" series amps are the "cheapest" amps that I know of that Crown makes. We bought it to use strictly as a "back-up" amp in the event our Peavey CS-800's ever fail.

The Crown "CE" series amps don't really compare "apples to apples" with the QSC's.

For a closer comparison, move up to the Crown "Macro-Tech" series. These things are bullet proof. Several of the major night clubs in Nashville,TN rely on the Macro-Tech's for power.

I've never had any problems with my CE-1000, but I only require about 20 hours a week from it.

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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 08-31-2000 07:31 AM

I also forgot to mention the Crown warranty.

3 years NO FAULT.. Crown doesn't care what you do to the amp - they will replace it - no questions asked.

This warranty also applies to the "CE" series.

Due to the high failure rate some folks have experienced with the "CE" series.. what do you expect from a $475.00 power amp?

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-31-2000 09:12 AM

Brad do you want a review on just all the faults of the CE amps
They are an amp the crown introduced to compete with the QSC USA serries
regretably the track recors of the crown just is not that good
Actually one good use of the CE amps is for testing the booth smoke detectors as I have seen smoke come out of many of them
If you want to talk about warrantys it still doesn't cover the cost of an engineer coming out and replacing the amp nor the lost shows in some cases. If you want a real warranty look at Brystons life time or 25 years no questions asked

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-31-2000 09:14 AM

My experience with Crown amps in both using and servicing is NEVER buy them for the first year or two of production, they are still beta testing the amps...there will be revisions galore during this period...after a while they will stablize.

The CE amps as the rest of the CROWN line up is seriously flawed in that it pulls ditry air from the front, heats it up and collects the filth inside, then sends the heated air into the rack for the rest of the equipment to deal with.

QSC on the other hand has it right, take the cool air from the rack, heat it up and then send it into the booth. To do it really right, one should invest in a filter intake rack blower (like from BUD or Rotron) so the amps won't clog up with filth.

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

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