Vintage Crown D 150A II Amp -- How good was it?

the Allman Brothers Band used stacked DC-300A amplifiers for their PA. I was in college at the time and i saw them hauling their equipment out the back after they finished playing. I don't think it would be a good choice for a stereo system these days. But they must have been pretty reliable amps or a group with a lot of bookings probably wouldn't be touring with them.

I still have my DC300A that I purchased new. I'v had it in my office for the last few years, but finally had to retire it because of big time transformer hum. When I bought the Crown back in the mid 70's, I mated it with a Mac C-26 (which I still have). The reason I didn't buy the matching MC2105 amp was because it was just a little too expensive, so I settled for the Crown. Big mistake, but I was young and on a limited budget.........

Some of those early SS amps really were terrible, Never was a big fan of Crown even back in the mid 1970s. I found I liked the typical but lower powered Kenwoods, Pioneers, Yamahas etc. McIntosh was waaay to expensive. My buddies all of whom had stereos and were "into it" thought I was nuts for spending $550 for a pair of Klipsch Heresys (they would have been $600 but I didn't go for the $50 optionl grille covers.)
I have more vintage audio now then I oened when it was current It is a lot of 60s stuff. I found that I like Sansui more than the Kenwood Integrated KA-7100 that I owned and used continuously for the next 24 years. Heck, now I even own a McIntosh albeit a small old SS power amp. I wish I had one of those, back in the day, It sounds great with my Klipsch which I still own.

Ha memories! --Mechans hit the nail on the head-- I dumped the 150 for a Mac 6100--great Amp-wish I still owned it!

Des

I bought a demo of this amp about 45 years ago and it ran just fine until recently it developed a 42db hum 8 feet from my Infinity floor standing speakers. Guess I can't complain, but it's probably the transformer and would be prohibitive to get it fixed. So a week ago I upgrade my electronics for the first time since those early years. I now have the Emotiva XSP-1 preamp and XPR-200 power amp. The Infinities, probably 30 years old, still sound like new and I'll probably keep them till I die.