Crown amps

>but the Phase Linears and Crowns from 30 years ago simply can't compete<

Amen.

Tony3d, well you did ask the question, so in all honesty the answers are there, but you decide to disagree.. This is fine, your mind is made up, but remember you went on a criticle audio site. Yes the old macro series as stated above I believe was reviewed as one of the best if you had to get into more audiophile world stuff, However it still ran super hot, and sucked juice that would cost a lot more money on the electric bill than some of the newer true home audio designs.. This is your choice.

I had the CE crown, and have used a few others.. Fan noise and absolute liquid sound and balance will not be obtained from a pro amp, that is all.. If you enjoy it for the money than that will be great.. I suggest looking at the QSC brand, they are better and WAY WAY cheaper pro amps for home audiophile use from my understanding.. You can probably get an equal online to what you are looking at for 3 to 400 and really clean your hands of having too much invested.. They might even make a model with all the processor capabilities of the crown you are looking at, I assume you really want the equalizer etc.. built in and that is why the crown XTI is important to your config it seems... Regardless of what a HUGE Theater at disney powered by crown and 10 to 20 times the amount of speakers involved, this is VERY different from the close quarter distortion levels you would obtain from a home environment 2 channel stereo, try it, and see how you like it, but I strongly suggest the QSC route as they are suppose to in general be quiter, cheaper, and run a bit cooler. Good Luck

Ellery911...And I am not disagreeing with what you say about traditional pro audio power amps. I just suggest that you keep an open mind, particularly with respect to digital amps. Do you think that designers of pro sound amps want them to sound bad? They have access to all the same circuits and components as do high end designers. No reason that they can't sound good. People should listen to them in context of quality home audio speakers and other equipment...not just at a pop concert.

Man, I remember those things from back in the day, early 70's.
The amps were bulletproof, and built to withstand heavy road use. If memory serves, the D150 sounded better than the 300a, but(sorry) the IC 150 was no sonic marvel, even in its day- it had the characteristic sound of a transistor device. This takes me back a while, but i think the Mac C-24 was extant at that time, there was an odd Quintessence preamp that had great unit to unit variability, and all of them sounded lifeless compared to an SP3-a-1 (which, today, would be considered overly romantic). I did not have any hands-on experience with that first Levinson preamp, and maybe I am drawing a blank here, but I cannot remember too many other audiophile preamps from that era (modified Dyna Pas 3's, Marantz 7c, what else?)

Well that sure is a wealth of info. It almost reminds me of those nightmare Bose hate agenda threads. Didn't mean to start a rant. Luckily I can take the amp home for a demo. If I like it I'll keep it, if not I'll just return it. I do have an Onkyo M504 amp sitting here to compare it with. Certainly not a great amp, but not the worst I ever heard either. That should give me some kind of reference. The M504 has a rubber low end, but the mids and highs are respectable. I wish I had some really good high end amp to compare it to, but I'm not that fortunate. I know there are real differences between amps I have heard them myself. I'm just curious what the difference between these Pro and even average consumer amps really are, because I have heard people say they can't hold a candle to an average consumer amp. I don't believe that right now. It's like some of these Bose 901 rants, people actually try and convince other people that $50.00 speakers sound better. Well I have heard both and that is just a plain Embarrassing comment. My speakers are the Polk LSI/25's.