Macro-Tech MA5000vz

Think bass, think Crest  (not CA though)

Not gutsy enough

The main problem with the Crests (and it affected the CA & Pro's alike as far as i know) was that in the years before they were bought by Peavey they had major problems with PSU design. Entire batches of transformers were faulty and caused the things to blow - there were some of the major superclub installs in the late nineties which had entire amp racks blowing up.

They were sorted out and most of the major companies that had installed or were touring the amps had replacement parts shipped from Crest and since then they've been pretty reliable but the incidents were enough to make some companies switch to different brands - its where MC2 got its first major inroad into the UK install market from.

Aside from the PSU faults the amps are fine. They do blow output devices occasionally if they get too hot at 2R and the fans in the CA series can stall and burn themselves out if you let them get too clogged up with crap in poorly ventilated racks but aside from that they're pretty good amps, if you don't mind lugging around lumps of iron that is. But then the macrotechs suffer from that problem.

In terms of sound none  of the CA, Pro or Macrotech amps are perfect and they're all now dated technology, people evangelise and romanticise about them never being bettered and stuff but you don't see many of the major hire co's still carting them about and nobodies installing them as first choice any more in the UK. Which you prefer depends on just how much low end distortion and colouration you like I guess!

Oh, just slightly.  There's a local venue running PS15's and 18" reflex subs.  It has previously been running on either EV P3000's or Camco Vortex 6's.  They blew a driver and/or it was too loud so the amps were changed to MA3600VZ's for less power.  Since then the number of blown drivers has gone through the roof!

Part of the problem is that unless you fit a correctly setup PIP-Clip card there are NO limiters on the macrotechs and no clip lights that ordinary people notice.

At least with the Crests the limiters are pretty good and there's a very obvious red light to tell you that the limiter has been engaged to stop you driving a square wave into the speakers.  Same with the P3000's, Camco's all have good inbuilt limiters.

opus jody wrote: Don't you all find that VZ's munch cones for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Yep...they must love the taste of paper cones or something?

Used one once...never again.

.p.

opus jody wrote: Don't you all find that VZ's munch cones for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I have my 5000s close to 15 years and, never lost a driver. Crown engineered their amplifiers from a technical point of view and, offered their manual using the same concept.

The average amp manufacter offers clip indicators, where crown's indicators take a different approach. This is why the uninformed will assume the lights work just as any other amplifier in which it does not. Which in turn, will end up with a good amount of dead woofers.

There's also not cut back power. The harder you drive it, the more output it will deliver...with distortion to match. So, if someone cannot hear the difference between clean output and distorted output they will find them selves constantly reconing speakers.

Best Regards,