Radlett Audio blog (occasional) on The Art of Sound

[hifi_dave]

Now sold. Thank you.

More items to come including Radford power-amps, pre and tuner.

[DSJR]

Hope the new D-60 owner likes this little amp - it really is seriously good if 50WPC typical is enough and was pretty much state of the art when I started out at one of the three only domestic dealers in the UK stocking and selling the brand. Nigh on fifty years on, it still 'measures' better than many domestic 'enthusiast' amp brands and I never found it had any 'sonic character' at all, just adapting to the sources and preamps feeding it upstream. Love mine - and somehow I've five of them, two sets bridged!!!

Full manuals on the Crown site still.

[hifi_dave]

Yes, they are wonderful amps. I have the D60, D150 and DC 300A and all are excellent, as good as the day they were made.

Next up for sale is the D150. I was listening to it this afternoon and it is really good. Cosmetically there are some marks but for it's age it's in good nick. Looking for offers.

[hifi_dave]

Listed my lovely Crown D150 on E-Bay.

It's a lovely amp, performing as the day it was made and sounding great. Built like a tank for a very long life.

Looking for offers.

[Barry]

Hope the new D-60 owner likes this little amp - it really is seriously good if 50WPC typical is enough and was pretty much state of the art when I started out at one of the three only domestic dealers in the UK stocking and selling the brand. Nigh on fifty years on, it still 'measures' better than many domestic 'enthusiast' amp brands and I never found it had any 'sonic character' at all, just adapting to the sources and preamps feeding it upstream. Love mine - and somehow I've five of them, two sets bridged!!!

Full manuals on the Crown site still.

That would be me Dave - and thanks to the other Dave for selling it to me.

The Crown (before they changed their name to Amcron) D60 was the amp coverted by me in my student days. I liked the slim profile, but couldn't afford one. I also coveted the IC-150 preamp to go with it, but both were way out of my budget. Later I coveted the Cambridge Audio P40 and P50 amps, again for their slim profile, but by that time I had been seduced by Class A circuitry and built my own amps, including a clone of the Sugden design.

I haven't decided what to do with the D60: maybe use it in a separate system, or maybe use it as a headphone amplifier.

[hifi_dave]

I lusted after a Crown/Amcron amp, many years ago. I was saving like mad for a DC300A and an IC150 but never managed to afford them. I downgraded my desire to the D150 but never got that either. Now I have both and can confirm how good they are.

The D60 does make an excellent headphone amp.

[DSJR]

That would be me Dave - and thanks to the other Dave for selling it to me.

The Crown (before they changed their name to Amcron) D60 was the amp coverted by me in my student days. I liked the slim profile, but couldn't afford one. I also coveted the IC-150 preamp to go with it, but both were way out of my budget. Later I coveted the Cambridge Audio P40 and P50 amps, again for their slim profile, but by that time I had been seduced by Class A circuitry and built my own amps, including a clone of the Sugden design.

I haven't decided what to do with the D60: maybe use it in a separate system, or maybe use it as a headphone amplifier.

I bought an early D-150 to 'augment' my inherited bridged D-60's as bridging them, makes the sound a touch 'looser' into the porty boxes I use and the 150 (as does my stereo 60 as you've bought) keeps the sound tight and better controlled as befits an amp with very low output impedance. If to be used as a headphone amp (the D-40 was definitely used as such back in the day but I don't know this one as we never sold them), use gain controls at ten o'clock or so and be very careful, as there are no padding resistors in series (or as a proper L-Pad) with the output and it's easy to deafen yourself with full clean power (too lazy to work out the output into say, 60 ohms), but the huge upside is no audible hiss (when my ears were better than today) into moderately efficient 'phones.

Used with moderate efficiency speakers, a D-60 goes all the way cleanly until it 'farts....' No change in tone but the 45 - 50W limit is reached without drama as the tone doesn't change with loudness as it can with some amps I can think of. It never sounds 'loud' if you see what I mean (neither does the DC300A by the way until you need to shout to talk to someone else in the room...). Got to say here and now and IC-150 driven, I don't reach my stereo D-60's limit with the Spendors and Harbeths, but I can't play loud in any case and my shot hearing makes it unpleasant above a certain moderate level (how the mighty fall eh, after once owning 115dB-in-room big ATC's and loving the experience when neighbours were out?). I still use an old D-150 or equivalent freshly restored HH VX300 amp, the former easily reproducing the differences in recordings while seemingly adding little if anything of its own - runs all but cold too unlike the HH, which gets rather warm on the heat-sinks.

Hope you like it and can find 'room' for it in your gear-stash

[hifi_dave]

I need to drag out my DC300a and give it a go. I haven't heard it since you last plugged it in.

[struth]

I need to drag out my DC300a and give it a go. I haven't heard it since you last plugged it in.

powerful amp that... 200w i think...

[hifi_dave]

I believe it is 155 wpc/8 ohms minimum, a lot more into 4 ohms.