If one is so inclined, I’ll let you browse some on your own for this thing’s lineage. Wife wanted to go antiquing for some furniture and I was not amused. Pull up to this place and it looks like a Goodwill had been hit by a bunker buster…. Junk everywhere. Lots of Lowe’s NOS stuff like it came off the back of a truck, clothes like it was a secondhand store, and a bunch of 80s electronics that were maybe $50 back then and easily outclassed by an iPhone today, including quality.
Anyways, I see this black behemoth peeking out of the bottom shelf and I see the Crestron name. I’ve never had Crestron because they’re SUPER proud of their stuff. So I google the model number. 16 channels by 60W@8 ohms, or 4x220@8 ohms bridged + 8x90 @ 4 ohms. Weighs 91 pounds! There was a sticker on the front which I later deciphered as “bad” and a date. Manager walks by and says, “it wouldn’t power up so I think it’s bad. $50, as is.” It’s got two tortoise in it the size of Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas and over 2500 square inches of heating, so I say what the heck, it’s worth a shot.
As wife hits a few more stores, I’m browsing forums looking for failure points since if you ran an Abrams into this thing, the Abrams would have a hangover in the morning. Not one forum I could find talked about failures… but they DID mention that since Crestron is a home automation company, the Cresnet control circuit needs a 24VDC signal to allow the amp to turn on. My heart starts to beat faster… could it really be that simple? I tone down my excitement because I’m an hour and a half away from home (and a 24VDC power supply I almost trashed a few weeks ago).
Shopping done, I dolly this monster into the house, check fuse (good), dig out a 4-pin Phoenix connector for the Cresnet plug, cuss a bit while finding the 24V supply, and get it hooked all up. Moment of truth… power supply: on. Push override button to engage amp manually: override lights up. Flip the power switch, and the green neon power light is alive! So far, so good.
Chase down my Echo dot and 3.5mm to RCA adapter and grab a Klipsch bookshelf. Plug into first zone, connect the Klipsch, and tell Alexa to play me some sweet, sweet music to my ears. Orion from Metallica starts playing!! No static, no hum, no distortion! I play musical connections for the next 5 minutes and test the other 15 channels and 7 zone inputs, and everything is great. So basically, picked up a $4k+ amp (Made in the USA no less!) for $50. Moral of the story is, not every shopping trip the spouse drags you on is a loss.
And the best part? I’m going back Monday to pick up the Crestron 7x200 amp that was sitting next to it with hopefully the same 24V “issue” and will see if I can negotiate an even better deal.
Pics to follow tomorrow.
Anyways, I see this black behemoth peeking out of the bottom shelf and I see the Crestron name. I’ve never had Crestron because they’re SUPER proud of their stuff. So I google the model number. 16 channels by 60W@8 ohms, or 4x220@8 ohms bridged + 8x90 @ 4 ohms. Weighs 91 pounds! There was a sticker on the front which I later deciphered as “bad” and a date. Manager walks by and says, “it wouldn’t power up so I think it’s bad. $50, as is.” It’s got two tortoise in it the size of Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas and over 2500 square inches of heating, so I say what the heck, it’s worth a shot.
As wife hits a few more stores, I’m browsing forums looking for failure points since if you ran an Abrams into this thing, the Abrams would have a hangover in the morning. Not one forum I could find talked about failures… but they DID mention that since Crestron is a home automation company, the Cresnet control circuit needs a 24VDC signal to allow the amp to turn on. My heart starts to beat faster… could it really be that simple? I tone down my excitement because I’m an hour and a half away from home (and a 24VDC power supply I almost trashed a few weeks ago).
Shopping done, I dolly this monster into the house, check fuse (good), dig out a 4-pin Phoenix connector for the Cresnet plug, cuss a bit while finding the 24V supply, and get it hooked all up. Moment of truth… power supply: on. Push override button to engage amp manually: override lights up. Flip the power switch, and the green neon power light is alive! So far, so good.
Chase down my Echo dot and 3.5mm to RCA adapter and grab a Klipsch bookshelf. Plug into first zone, connect the Klipsch, and tell Alexa to play me some sweet, sweet music to my ears. Orion from Metallica starts playing!! No static, no hum, no distortion! I play musical connections for the next 5 minutes and test the other 15 channels and 7 zone inputs, and everything is great. So basically, picked up a $4k+ amp (Made in the USA no less!) for $50. Moral of the story is, not every shopping trip the spouse drags you on is a loss.
And the best part? I’m going back Monday to pick up the Crestron 7x200 amp that was sitting next to it with hopefully the same 24V “issue” and will see if I can negotiate an even better deal.
Pics to follow tomorrow.
