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Crown CE1000 power amp...Good deal for my needs?

c3powil

c3powil

Apr 18, 2008
419
301
North of ATL, GA
#1
So I was in the market for a power amp. After slimming down my rig to just an Avatar 2x10 and Sansamp bass driver DI, I wanted a power amp that would be cheap, but still provide enough power to add another 2x10 or 2x12 sometime in the future.

I bid on a Crown CE1000 on ebay after reading a few reviews. They seemed very favorable, and the amp's specs matched what I was looking for.

I was outbid on the amp for $190. But another CE1000 appeared with a buy it now pricing at 150, so I snatched it up.

I was only after committing to buy that I read some rather unfavorable reviews. And I also found out that this amps wattage is not RMS rated, but peak.

Bridged, the amp outputs 900 watts at 8 ohms and 1100 watts at 4 ohms. I assuming that RMS is around half of that, so 450 at 8 ohms and 550 at 4 ohms still isn't bad. it just means I probably wont be using the stereo mode ever.

Now for the reliability and performance... I'm not using this thing like someone would in a church or venue, stacked in a rack with other equipment and operating for hours at max output. I'm simply using it as an amp head. Do you think it is enough for me to comfortably rely on? Maybe this thing sucked at the $450 dollar price point but would be awesome for the 150 I paid for it?
 
#2
Wait a minute... where did you "find out" that the CE-1000 power rating is "peak", as this is most certainly not true at all. The ratings are average continuous power which is based on RMS voltage. It's accurately represented in Crown's documentation. Beware of incorrect internet information and opinions from those who do not know what they are talking about. ;)

Be very careful regarding how you power your 210 cabinet (any 210 actually), as the amp has enough power in bridge mode to (easily) destroy the speaker if it's 8 ohms, but even more easily if it's 4 ohms. I suggest that you run the cabinet off on one channel of the amp, leaving the other channel available when you decide to add another cabinet.

With regards to reliability, they did suffer from reliability issues so I hope your new purchase holds up for you and that it arrives in proper operating condition. I used to service Crown products (many years ago) and this was one line of amps that failed in ways that could render the main PCB unrepairable under some types of faults. I do not believe Crown still supports this amp at the factory level, so buyer beware.
 
#4
Ahh, just anther reason why I like to check out my purchases. Just reading reviews, as you do, on the web led me to this apparently incorrect conclusion.

Would there be a problem in going Bass Driver to CE1000 stereo mode to 8 ohm Avatar 2x10? This would give me 275 watts, which wouldn't be enough to hurt the cab at all. Although I'm not really sure how much wattage the cab can actually handle. It doesn't have a model number anywhere.

What can I do to keep the amp's lifespan as long as possible?
 
#5
Stereo mode into the 8 ohm cabinet is a good choice IMO (note that the amp delivers ~300 watts RMS into 8 ohms, single channel driven) so without knowing more about the cabinet I wouldn't recommend any more than that anyway.

Most failures that I saw were either mechanical (rough handling), liquid induced (the open grille front with the PCB located where it is makes this amp particularly vulnerable to spilled drinks), and short circuited speaker wires.
 
#7
c3powil said:
I didnt know that driving only one channel produces more wattage!
Click to expand...
This is generally, but not always true.

c3powil said:
So basically, if I treat it with any common sense then it should last a while? What,do people in pro audio regularly hassle their equipment like that?
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Pro audio folks don't have a monopoly on rough treatment, I have seen plenty of really beat bass gear (and guitar gear) also.

The real pro audio guys don't beat their gear though, there's way too much money invested and a failure can be sort of career ending (at least at the level I am/was at). Reliability is the name of the game at this level, which means that gear is well taken care of. I have racks of amps 10 - 15 years old with a couple thousand shows on them and the gear still looks pretty much like new. I also have way too much money invested to treat it any other way.
 
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#9
There are different levels of robustness, thus particular model wasn't as robust as many of the others (even by the same manufacturer)
 
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#11
Well this gives me a better understanding as to why it seems to have so many mixed reviews. I wouldn't expect an amp to work after being banged up too badly, or having something spilled on it, though that would be a really nice feature.

Thanks for the help and clarification.
 
#12
One more question if you wouldn't mind.

Would it be possible to use an 8ohm cab and a 4 ohm cab together running this amp in stereo mode? It seems possible to me, but this is something I've never considered with a normal bass amp head, so I don't want to assume and then regret later.
 
#14
c3powil said:
One more question if you wouldn't mind.

Would it be possible to use an 8ohm cab and a 4 ohm cab together running this amp in stereo mode? It seems possible to me, but this is something I've never considered with a normal bass amp head, so I don't want to assume and then regret later.
Click to expand...

As noted by @agedhorse, this would work. Furthermore, it is one of the ways one can combine dissimilar cabinets and minimize the differences between them. What I mean is that if one cabinet is more sensitive or less able to handle power, to a certain degree, you can protect it from being consistently overdriven by attenuating the input for the channel in question with the power amp front panel control.

This is not fool proof, as the input attenuator does not "turn down" the amplifier, it just reduces the level of the input. If a sufficient input is sent, it still might overdrive the speaker(s) in the lesser cabinet.

A side note: combining disimilar impedance cabinets is also not an issue if both cabinets contain the same drivers and both cabs are running off the same channel, assuming a 2 ohm capable channel. This is actually a fairly special case, where one might have an 8 ohm 112 and a 4 ohm 212 made by the same company with identical drivers and similar cabinet volume/tuning per driver.

With separate inputs, one can even use each side of the power amp for different applications, e.g., one side for bass, the other for PA monitors.
 
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#17
c3powil said:
Bridged, the amp outputs 900 watts at 8 ohms and 1100 watts at 4 ohms. I assuming that RMS is around half of that, so 450 at 8 ohms and 550 at 4 ohms still isn't bad.
Click to expand...

Per the spec sheet the CE1000's "1kHz power" output is 275 watts per channel into 8 ohms, 450 into 4. Crown defines "1kHz power" as "maximum average power in watts at 1 kHz with 0.5% THD". Since that reeks of Spec Fudging® I suspect its true RMS rating is even a bit lower.

But it's still a solid amp and certainly powerful enough to drive typical bass cabs. I've got a CE1000 that some friends gave me as a birthday present 15 years ago. It's now in my bass rack rig, which spends 90% of its time in the rehearsal studio. Since I have two 8 ohm speaker cabinets in my rig, I leave the CE1000 in stereo mode and just feed the two inputs from a Y-cable coming out of my preamp; then one 275 watt amp channel per cab.

A CE1000 wouldn't be my first choice for amplifying critical studio monitors or a high end listening room, but for a bass rig it's fine. You can definitely drive a truck over it.
 
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#18
Thanks! I've been messing around with it, and it seems pretty solid. My sansamp has a 1/4 inch boost, which I assume was put there in order to suit this application. It sounds great.

I just can't get over how many more options you can have when you run a poweramp like this for a bass rig. I could run an 8 ohm 2x10 cab next to a 4 ohm 2x12, adjust the volumes separately, and get a near perfect mix. There's also the possibility of powering 8 separate 8ohm cabs with one amp... :roflmao:
 

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