Mechans (Steve), I've listened to these speakers in all their iterations over the past couple of years. The key was finding something that will drive the 1 ohm load presented by the woofer array. Ralph (founder and engineer who designed these) determined that a high output switching amp allowed him to get the results he was seeking to achieve while doing so at some reasonable cost.
The Crown 4002xti at 1,000 wpc has been a decided improvement over the custom Class G amps they started with (and still offer). The additional virtue offered by the Crown is extensive control over choices and combinations of crossover point, rate of filtering, EQ, signal delay and other factors that help the driver arrays match most effectively to a given room's acoustics. This is not a trivial virtue. I've been told that you can move further up the Crown line and there may well be alternatives from other manufacturers that one could substitute. They key in making another choice is also finding something that allows you to control so many of the frequency and phase characteristics.
If you get an opportunity to listen to these speakers, ask Doug to let you hear some different control profiles he's experimented with for the crossover. It's mind-blowing for this non-engineer to hear the differences.
The Crown 4002xti at 1,000 wpc has been a decided improvement over the custom Class G amps they started with (and still offer). The additional virtue offered by the Crown is extensive control over choices and combinations of crossover point, rate of filtering, EQ, signal delay and other factors that help the driver arrays match most effectively to a given room's acoustics. This is not a trivial virtue. I've been told that you can move further up the Crown line and there may well be alternatives from other manufacturers that one could substitute. They key in making another choice is also finding something that allows you to control so many of the frequency and phase characteristics.
If you get an opportunity to listen to these speakers, ask Doug to let you hear some different control profiles he's experimented with for the crossover. It's mind-blowing for this non-engineer to hear the differences.