Samson vs Crown CE Amps for SVS? (1 Viewer)

[Leon O]

I should start by saying that I'm powering an SVS 20-39cs with one channel of a Denon AVR-50. That's ONLY 60 watts. It sounds GREAT!. So, I'm considering sending back the 20-39 and getting the 16-46cs+ and Samson 1000 package. After all, if the cs sounds that good with 60 watts, how good would a cs+ sound with 500 watts!

Locally, I can get a pretty good deal on the Crown CE 1000 (2x450 4ohms, 1100x1 4ohms). Does anyone have experience with the Crown amps that they can share? Or, should I stick with the proven Samson setup?

Thanks

Leon (alias: lao162)

 

[KevinHunt]

Leon, if you can get a better deal on the Crown than the Samson, it should be a great amp. The specs look great and I know that Crown has a good rep with regards to quality professional amps. The only concern I would have is if the fan noise is high. I had heard somewhere that the Samsons were made by Crown. I don't know if this is true, just read it in another post somewhere. I do know that the fans in the Samson are really quiet.

 

[Leon O]

Thanks Kevin, Fan Noise was one of my concerns.

 

[Tom Vodhanel]

The QSC 850s are $299 too, plenty of power for 1-4 SVs...but a bit of fan noise of it's own.

TV

 

[SVS-Ron]

Leon,

I'm not sure about that Crown (the K1s we carry are fanless) but the Crown CL1 I am using in my HT (a demo amp we were considering before the shift to the Samsons) has VERY loud fans. I'm talking about vaccum cleaner loud. (OK maybe not that much but LOUD). Worse, even the most minor fluctuations in line voltage will set off the fans from their sleep mode. Switching on a light in my rear HT equipment rack (behind my viewing room) will set them off to droning away. If you are concerned about fan noise, you've been warned.

The Samsons are inaudible (to my ears) in a normal room from more than 2 feet away. They are hands-down the quietest fan cooled amps we have ever used and this is one key reasons we chose them for our lower cost packages.

Of the many hundreds we have sold I think we had one returned because of "fan noise". That one had a bad fan as it turned out.

Ron

 

[RichardH]

I've used that CE1000 in a studio, and I can tell you that the fans are pretty loud. Of course, the control room is quite a bit quieter than a normal living room, but it was loud. If you're not going to put the amp in a closet, etc., I would just get the Samson.

 

[Leon O]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'd find the fan noise annoying during the quiet parts of a movie.

Leon (lao162)

 

[BobL]

Hi,

I have the Samson S1000 driving my SVS Ultra and I can't hear it at all unless I'm right next to it.

Bob

 

[Steve Hanna]

Hmmm...

I saw some factory reconditioned CE2000s for $400. CE1000s for $300.

I heard that the fans are multiple speeds and won't run at full force unless you're really cranking 'em. The CE2000 should be less likely to kick on as it has more power reserves. The CE2000 will bridge into 4 Ohms @ 1.9 kW.[/size]