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Crown K1 good for RF-5 or RF-7's?


vl3rd

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Solid state amps that run big Reference speakers need to be amps that can drive low impedance loads with ease. The RF-7's minimum impedance goes down to about three ohms. Many amps cannot handle the low impedance and produce boomy bass.

Pro amps usually handle the low impedance at the cost of fan noise for cooling. If my recollection is correct, the K1 does not have a fan, but does have lots of power and can drive low impedances.

A good amp will have superior performance in the bass frequencies. Bass will be tighter and different bass notes will be clearly present.

If possible, listen before you buy.

Bill

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The K1 is a great clean sounding amp. It "could" be overkill for your speakers but just keep the volume down on the amps and you'll be fine. Having extra headroom is always a good thing. I wouldn't be surprised though if you end up hearing some hiss from the speakers. I've always heard hiss on the K1 amps, but then again every situation had like 50foot runs for the input cable which is a long way to go without picking up noise along the way (especially when running parallel to power and other speaker/signal cables).

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On 5/3/2005 6:48:38 AM bsafirebird1969 wrote:

any Crown can handle the RF-7 with authority ..

what is your front end, tho ...

Crowns are a very cold amp to the ears ...

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This is not a disagreement, but I would qualify the statement about 'coldness'...

The Crown pro line of amps are very clean and accurate, with little coloration - hence some may find them 'cold'. Personally, as I look for an amp that follows the 'straight wire with gain' model, I feel that the character and coloration are best done in the creative recording process. And I would maintain that the speaker is the component that most adds coloration, and as such I cannot fault the amp.

As for low frequency replication, I would put Crown up against any amp. Especially as you move up from the K series.

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I'm having a very positive experience over here using a QSC PLX1602 driven with a nice tube preamp. I bought the QSC on Trey Cannon's recommendation, and since I had 30 days to return it, I figured what the heck. After having just unloaded a VAC 30/30, I wasn't expecting much from the QSC, and fully expected to be taking advantage of the return policy. The QSC caught me off guard, and really surpised me. It's the first amp I've owned that doesn't collapse the image and lose detail at low volume levels -- an amazing thing considering it's high power pedigree.

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I had a DC/IC150 setup in the early 80's (still got it). I think that this is what PWK had, too. They also used to make some of the best reel-to-reels ever made.

But my amp was/is nasty, bright, no soundstage to speak of. Horrifying, really. Hopefully, their new stuff is better.

DM

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It's the first amp I've owned that doesn't collapse the image and lose detail at low volume levels -- an amazing thing considering it's high power pedigree.

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Now that is a very interesting thing to say.....I listen at low volumes a lot. It might work for me if I could get past the industrial look of the pro amps.1.gif

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