I was reminded of chocolate ice cream when I unpacked the loudspeakers I'm reviewing this month. Both are…
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In the ice-cream world, chocolate is the universal end of the line. Vanilla experiments that taste great but look foul, maple syrup flavors that are more maple than syrup, tutti-frutti that's too tutti—all are recycled as chocolate flavor, their visual sins permanently hidden from view. In the world of wood, the equivalent of chocolate ice cream is the ubiquitous "black ash" veneer. The original color and character of the wood are irrelevant: it all ends up stained black.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (28mm), ferrofluid-cooled doped fabric-dome tweeter; 4.5" (115mm) plastic-cone woofer with 3" (75mm) voice-coil and diecast chassis. Measured crossover frequency: 2.4kHz. Electrical crossover slopes: not specified. Frequency response: 80Hz–20kHz ±3dB at 2m with grille on. Variation from reference: ±0.3dB. Sensitivity: 81.0dB/W/m (2.83V). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Power handling: not specified. Amplifier requirements: 50–150W.
Dimensions: 11.6" (295mm) H by 7.25" (184mm) W by 8.4…
Sidebar 2: System context
Power amplifiers used to drive these speakers were a pair of Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks; the preamplifier was the remote-controlled Mark Levinson No.38S. A Mod Squad Phono Drive EPS amplified LP signals from a Linn Sondek/Cirkus/Trampolin/Lingo/Ekos/Arkiv setup sitting on an ArchiDee table. Digital source was a Mark Levinson No.30 driven by a Mark Levinson No.31 transport via Madrigal AES/EBU cable and an Audio Alchemy DTI•Pro or a Sonic Frontiers UltrajitterBug.
Interconnects used were AudioQuest's AudioTruth Lapis x3; speaker cable was a bi-wired…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Almost all the measurements accompanying this review were made with the DRA Labs MLSSA system, a full-length card that fits into a PC. This generates a pseudo-random noise signal which is picked up by a B&K 4006 microphone, calibrated to be flat on-axis at the approximate measuring distance I use. The host computer then compares the microphone's output with the drive signal it sent out to the loudspeaker and, by performing a cross-correlation operation, calculates the speaker's impulse response. By windowing out reflections of the speaker's output from room…
Crown?
Yeah, you remember Crown from the "old days"—this was a big brand in the 1970s and before. If you lived in the Boston area, you remember the "high-end room" in the back of Tech Hi-Fi. Crown gear. The stuff had a very good reputation for sound and reliability.
Then Crown did a slow fade from the audiophile scene, preferring to do business with professional musicians and those who buy amps for schools, churches, clubs, and the like.
There's something very blue-collar American about the appearance of Crown gear: plain, basic, no-nonsense, meat and potatoes.…
Lewis Lipnick Reviewed the Crown Macro Reference in November 1993 (Vol.16 No.11):
I still have fond memories of my Crown D-75, D-150, and DC-300 power amps (footnote 1). In those days back in the early '70s, I was working in the recording industry, and Crown was the premier manufacturer of cost-effective studio-monitor and sound-reinforcement amplification. It wasn't until BGW, Crest, and a few other companies began entering the pro-sound market that Crown met with any real competition. There are still lots of studios and sound-reinforcement outfits using Crown amps, and just about…
I still have fond memories of my Crown D-75, D-150, and DC-300 power amps (footnote 1). In those days back in the early '70s, I was working in the recording industry, and Crown was the premier manufacturer of cost-effective studio-monitor and sound-reinforcement amplification. It wasn't until BGW, Crest, and a few other companies began entering the pro-sound market that Crown met with any real competition. There are still lots of studios and sound-reinforcement outfits using Crown amps, and just about…
Tom Norton Takes a Listen to the Crown, from November 1993 (Vol.16 No.11)
It is Stereophile's policy when reviewers disagree about a component's merits—despite LL's dislike of the Macro Reference's sound, Sam Tellig was politely impressed last December (Vol.15 No.12, p.147)—to seek a third opinion. I therefore asked Tom Norton to take a listen to the Crown and to perform a specific comparison with the magazine-owned sample of the Krell KSA-250.—John Atkinson
As I begin to write this postscript, I have yet to read LL's assessment of the Crown, though JA informs me that the general…
Sidebar 1: Lewis Lipnick's System
I received three Macro Reference amplifiers: one Studio and two Esoterics (for dual-mono application). Since I could detect no sonic difference between the Studio and Esoteric, I decided to stick with the latter, principally because it had four binding posts per channel; this made connecting my quad-wired B&W 800 speakers much easier. The rest of the system consisted of a Yamaha Pro DAT, Theta Data Generation II CD transport, Theta DS Pro Gen.III D/A processor, Krell PSB-32X D/A processor, Mark Levinson No.26S, Audio Research LS2B, and Krell KRC line…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
A full set of measurements of the Crown Macro Reference was made in its balanced mode, with selected measurements repeated for the unbalanced mode.
Running our standard 1/3-power, one-hour preconditioning test on the Crown proved a real challenge. After about a half hour of the test load absorbing over 500W from the Crown (253Wpc), a strong smell of burning plastic filled the lab. No, the Crown had not self-destructed—its built-in, variable-speed fan kept the amplifier itself no more than moderately warm. But our test load had become hot enough to fry eggs…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Solid-state stereo power amplifier. Power output: 760Wpc into 8 ohms (28.8dBW), 1160Wpc into 4 ohms (27.6dBW), 1500Wpc into 2 ohms (25.75dBW), all at <0.02% THD, both channels driven. Input sensitivities: Studio version: switchable between 775mV for full output and 26dB voltage gain. Esoteric version: switchable between 1.4V for full output and 26dB voltage gain. Input impedance: 10k ohms (balanced), 5k ohms (unbalanced). S/N ratio: >120dB (A-weighted) below rated output at 26dB gain. Bandwidth: 3Hz–100kHz. Damping factor: >20,000, 10–200Hz…