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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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Beyond even my own sunny expectations, new cartridges continue to be designed and introduced at every price level: the parsimonious, the porcine, and, most significant of all, the middle of the road—which is where the healthiest market for virtually any product has to exist in the long term. That's among the reasons why I jumped at the chance to try the new Ortofon Rondo Bronze ($899).

Another reason is my respect for…

Listening
I've fallen into the habit of running-in new stereo cartridges by starting with side 1 of Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic's groundbreaking recording of…

Description: Low-output moving-coil cartridge. Cantilever: one-piece tapered aluminum tube. Stylus: Fritz Gyger FG80 diamond. Output: 0.5mV. Compliance: 15cu. Channel separation: >25dB (1kHz), 18dB (15kHz). Channel balance: 1dB. Internal resistance: 6 ohms. Recommended load: 10–200 ohms. Frequency response: 20–20kHz, ±1.5dB. Weight: 10.5gm. Downforce range: 2.0–2.5gm. Recommended downforce: 2.3gm.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: none.
Price: $899. Approximate number of dealers: 7.
Manufacturer: Ortofon A/S, Stavangervej 9, DK-4900 Nakskov, Denmark.…

Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 (with Linn Basik power supply), Thorens TD 124 Mk.II turntables; Naim Aro, Rega RB300 tonearms; Miyabi 47, Denon DL-103 cartridges.
Digital Source: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Standard, K&K Audio step-up transformers; Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifier: Shindo Cortese.
Loudspeakers: Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Shindo Silver. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: JPS Labs The Digital (Sony SCD-777ES).
Accessories: Mana Reference…