Crest pro 6001

well its arrived all 450 watts into 8 ohms.

first impressions are very favourable, I haven't heard an amp this clear.

superb stereo, sound is panning left and right on heart(oh dear, good fun tho)

it has a live feel, it has slam and thwack, I don't have another solid state to compare with, but my bro is coming on fri with a musical fidelity x80 that I was going to settle with for a while after a big period of flux, looks like I will be disappointed with the mf, this thing is huge. It has more of the sound I have been seeking,it rocks like I haven't heard an amp rock,but weighs close to 30kg and has a fan which is not audible with music, so I can bear that.



That transformer is bigger than a man's hand btw, its huge, and those are 20,000uf caps each!!

 

Ian, Its fun that amp. Bit rough for home stuff imho, but can be made to sound cool, for the cash a steal.

 

its certainly fun, I haven' t had this much fun hifi wise for a long time, doesn't sound rough to me though, very smooth whilst being crisp, perhaps you need better cables? I'll build you a set for £600

now to find some fun speakers, any suggestions?( proacs are good fun.)

 

Well, my first suspicion about the crest is right, it IS a bit light down below, its solid, but listening to leann rimes, the vocals are pushed forward, and things like drums and strings get pushed back, almost to the extent they disappear
I have just got a new MF x-80 and what a lovely little amp this is, it doesn't sound as big as the crest, as you would expect, but it seems more coherent, typical mf voicing, as in very smooth, incredibly so, not harsh at all, slightly bright, solid bass, giving the tonal colour of snare drums, something few amps give.
I could get to like it a lot. Its a very attractive enjoyable sound, but avoids the greyness of some mf amps like the x-a1 and a1001, I have no idea how they do it, but it still has that house sound whilst being a totally different design.( I suspect the bits that are 'tuned' are the compensation capacitors)
It runs VERY warm for a budget amp.

Note to capacitor freaks, this amplifier has some cheap jamicons, and ceramic discs as compensation caps(reputed to be an audiophile disaster, someone even said they have no place in audio.)
well it sounds smooth and clean up top, bass a strongpoint in colour, tunefulness and solidity, so I am getting even more sceptical about designer components and proponents slating these types of cap.

 

Data, PA amps can have a deliberately rolled off bass end, say -3dB @ 20 or whatever. If you are keeping it, and you can purloin a schematic there may be a very simple part swap. This is nowhere near as serious as replacing all elec caps or whatever. Probably just 1 cap per channel..